“Who, then, can be following so large a band, and for what purpose?  Surely two cannot harm so many.”

“That I know not, but I fear them to be of the outlawed Seminoles.[1] If so, they are following my people for the purpose of picking up plunder, or of snatching the prize of a scalp—­a thing they could only gain by a cowardly attack upon one defenceless, for they dare not seek it in open fight.  Or it may be that one of them is he who has conceived a bitter enmity against those who never treated him with aught save kindness, and that he has joined with him another equally base.”

At this thought Has-se’s bright face became clouded, and for some time he remained silent.  Finally the silence was again broken by Rene, who asked,

“Who are these Seminoles of whom thou dost speak thus contemptuously?”

“Seminole, in my language, signifies a run-away.  They are a band of thieves, murderers, and other bad Indians, who have been driven out of my tribe and other tribes on the north.  They have gradually increased in numbers, until now they call themselves a tribe.  They are always at war with all men, and against them my people have declared a fight forever.”

“And who is he of whom thou speakest so vaguely as having conceived an enmity unjustly against those who have harmed him not?”

“One who should be well known to thee, Ta-lah-lo-ko.  I speak of Chitta the Snake, whom I hope we may not encounter.”

“It will be the worse for him if we do encounter him, and he ventures to interfere with us,” replied Rene, hotly.

“Nay, Ta-lah-lo-ko.  I have a feeling within me which warns me that a meeting with the Snake will be a sad one for us,” answered Has-se, who, though as brave as a young lion, was inclined to be superstitious, as were all of his race.

During this conversation the course of the canoe had been through a mere thread of a stream, and Rene now noticed that they were traversing the mazes of a dark swamp.  The little stream connected a series of stagnant pools or bayous, and just as they came into the open water of one of these they caught a glimpse of another canoe leaving it on the opposite side.  Even as they sighted it, it shot in among the trunks of a dense cypress forest, and disappeared.

[1]Before the Seminoles became the powerful tribe into which they finally grew they were a band of outlaws, composed of those who, for some good reason, had fled or been driven from the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other tribes of the South.—­K.  M.

CHAPTER VII

CHITTA BECOMES A SEMINOLE

In order to account for the presence of the canoe of which Rene and Has-se had caught a glimpse, as it darted in among the black shadows of the cypress forest in the great swamp, we must go back to the night that followed the Feast of Ripe Corn.