CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
THEY camped that night upon the spot which had witnessed their last trial and rescue, and set out at early morning to ride to the town of Vincennes, accompanied by Tecumseh and a portion of his band. Upon the evening of the next day they camped again a few miles from Vincennes, where they were met by the rangers of Floyd, who had been sent out on a scout in the direction of the ruined station. Knowing them to be safe, Tecumseh bade them farewell. His band already were on the march, and he stopped a moment to press the hands of Floyd and Yankee Seth.
"The heart of Tecumseh is made of stern stuff," he said. "But, it is very sad when he thinks that when we may meet again it may be as enemies. In that hour do not forget that we have been friends."
Making them a mute gesture of farewell, he turned upon his heel and left them. The young soldier took the hand of Madge and they stood alone in the gathering darkness. In that sad hour, a father driven mad by his wrongs, his faithful servants slaughtered, the young man felt that she was indeed all to him. A low growth of bushes separated them from the rangers, and they were very close together, when there rose before them the fearful figure of the Skeleton Scout. It stood a moment looking fixedly at them, when the ghastly head disappeared, although the body remained, and a boisterous laugh greeted them as Nabockalish, the Skeleton Scout, stood confessed in the person of Yankee Seth.
"Seth Spink!" cried Floyd. "Is it possible?"
"You the Skeleton Scout?" murmured Madge.
"Jess so. I'm that identickle cuss," said Seth, laughing. "But, don't tell the boys, fer the disguise is a right good 'un."
"But you were always as frightened at the Skeleton Scout as any one," said Madge.
"That was a blind, you know," he replied. "Ef yew'd 'a' taken time tew think, yew'd 'a' seen that I was never on hand at the same time the Skellington was. I'll tell yew how it was done, ef you'll promise tew keep it secret."
"Agreed," said Floyd.
"Wal, then, I've got the apperatus here. Come closer, yew'll see how easy it works. Yew see my hunting-shirt is loose round the neck. That leaves room fer the thing tew lay com'fable and out of sight. I pull up this black cloth like this, yew see, and it covers my head, leaving a place fer my mouth and eyes. Then, here's a blow-pipe. I blow on it, and yew see what happens."
He inflated his cheeks and blew hard upon the pipe, and a number of white stripes upon the surface of the black cloth began to rise and swell until they assumed, in the darkness, the appearance of a ghastly skeleton head. When it was inflated he turned a stop which kept in the air, and putting up his hand, turned the slides of a pair of small "bull's-eye" lamps, and the Skeleton Scout was before them. Floyd could not avoid a hearty laugh at the ease with which the thing was done. Seth joined in the laugh, turned the stop and allowed the air to escape, pulled down the contrivance and pushed it under his loose hunting-shirt, and appeared in his own person.
"It don't take me tew moments tew change characters and be Nabockalish or Yankee Seth, jest ez I like," he said. "Let the gal go to camp a minnit, Will. I want tew speak tew yew."
"A moment, my friend, and then I will go," said Madge. "How did you produce the appearance of the fiery serpent upon the rocks, after we were hidden in the hole in the rock."
"I dropped a train of gunpowder in the shape I wanted it, and set fire tew it," the Yankee said, laughing. "'Most any specter will be ez easy 'counted fer ez I am, if people could only git tew the root. There, go away, gal."
Madge went slowly back to camp, and the scout stood a moment in deep thought.
"Yew seen them graves by the ruined cabin in the woods, my boy?" said he. "I didn't tell yew whose they were, because that would 'a' bin ez good ez telling yew my secret. My wife and children lay thar, jest ez I buried 'em when I found 'em scalped and gory, when I cum back from a hunt. I've lived a scout and hunter since, and not a bad one, ez old man Harrison will tell yew, and I've had my revenge on a few of the reptiles. When I wear the disguise of the Skeleton Scout I spare none."
"And how is it you leave no sign?" said Floyd.
"Yew didn't look in the right place. Both those dead hounds yew seen were stabbed threw the brain behind the ear. I've got a knife with a thin blade, that leaves no blood outside. Perhaps I'm wrong, but, whenever that idee comes over me, I think of them green graves on the sunny slope, and then I'm an iron man ag'in. Don't tell this tew any one, and try tew forgive me if I have bin tew blame."
Floyd silently extended his hand and the scout grasped it firmly in his own. They were tried friends from that hour, and never in the after peril which came to that frontier forgot the dangers they had shared together.
Matthew Floyd, under the care of a good surgeon, recovered somewhat his shattered faculties, but, the sound of an Indian war-whoop would always drive him wild in a moment.
The young couple were married the next week and lived in Vincennes, and remained happy in each other's love until the war began in earnest along the frontier, and the rangers, with their gallant leader, marched to the fierce battle at Tippecanoe, where the power of the Prophet was broken, and Willimack lost his life.
Dead Chief remained true to the whites, and at last, in a fearfully tragic manner, which another tale may serve to show, sealed his devotion with his life.
The Skeleton Scout was still seen at night, flashing in the darkness beside the Indian camp-fires; and when the war was over, came back to live in quiet upon a farm just outside Vincennes, and go down to the grave honored and beloved. And Madge Floyd taught her children to honor the name of Nabockalish, the Skeleton Scout, and her first, a noble boy, was the Seth of her fair household.
THE END.