ver, that in the struggle a flaring spark might cause the
ignition of scattered particles of the powder about the floor, and thus
precipitate the explosion which he shuddered to imagine. "For what,
Colannah?" he asked again, in a soothing smooth cadence, "for what, my
comrade, my benefactor for years, my best-beloved friend--avenged on me
for what? Let's go upstairs!"

The flicker of the wavering candle showed a smile of contempt on the
face of the angry Indian for a moment, and admonished Varney that in
view of the Cherokees' relish of the torture his manifestations of
anxiety but prolonged his jeopardy. It brought, too, a fuller
realization of the gravity of the situation in that the Indian should so
valiantly risk himself. He evidently intended to take the trader's life,
but in such wise that no vengeance for his death should fall upon the
Cherokee nation. Abram Varney summoned all his courage, which was not
inconsiderable, and had been cultivated by the wild and uncertain
conditions of his life. Assured that he could do naught to hasten his
release, he awaited the event in a sort of stoical patience, dreading,
however, every motion, every sound, the least stir setting his expectant
nerves aquiver. Silence, quiescence, brought the disclosure earlier than
he had feared.

"When I took the boy Jan Queetlee--why do I call him thus, instead of by
the name he has earned for himself, the noble Otasite of Tennessee
Town?"--the old chief began as deliberately, as disregardfully of the
surroundings as if seated under the boughs of one of the giant oaks on
the safe slopes of Chilhowee yonder--"when I took him away from the
braves who had overcome the South Carolina stationers, I owed him no
duty. He was puny and ill and white and despised! You British say the
Indian has no pity. A man's son or brother or father or mother has
claims upon him. Otasite was naught to me, a mere _eeankke_!" (a
captive). "I owed the child no duty. My love was voluntary. I gave it a
free gift; no duty! And he was little, and drooping, and meagre, and ill
all the time! But he grew; soon no such boy in the Cherokee nation, soon
hardly such a warrior in all the land--not even Otasite of Watauga, nor
yet Otasite of Eupharsee; perhaps at his age Oconostota excelled"
(Oconostota always was preeminently known as the "Great Warrior"). He
paused to shake his head and meditate on difficult comparisons and
instances of prowess. After an interval which, long eno