An incident still more alarming quickly followed.Two captives,white men,securely bound,were one day brought before him on their way to the stake,followed by a crowd of old and young squaws and children.The unhappy Elijah recognized in the prisoners two packers from a distant settlement who sometimes passed through Redwood Camp.An agony of terror,shame,and remorse shook the pseudo chief to his crest of high feathers,and blanched his face beneath its paint and yellow ochre.To interfere to save them from the torture they were evidently to receive at the hands of those squaws and children,according to custom,would be exposure and death to him as well as themselves;while to assist by his passive presence at the horrible sacrifice of his countrymen was too much for even his weak selfishness.Scarcely knowing what he did as the lugubrious procession passed before him,he hurriedly hid his face in his blanket and turned his back upon the scene.There was a dead silence.The warriors were evidently unprepared for this extraordinary conduct of their chief.What might have been their action it was impossible to conjecture,for at that moment a little squaw,perhaps impatient for the sport and partly emboldened by the fact that she had been selected,only a few days before,as the betrothed of the new chief,approached him slyly from the other side.The horrified eyes of Elijah,momentarily raised from his blanket,saw and recognized her.The feebleness of a weak nature,that dared not measure itself directly with the real cause,vented its rage on a secondary object.He darted a quick glance of indignation and hatred at the young girl.She ran back in startled terror to her companions,a hurried consultation followed,and in another moment the whole bevy of girls,old women,and children were on the wing,shrieking and crying,to their wigwams.
"You see,"said one of the prisoners coolly to the other,in English,"I was right.They never intended to do anything to us.
It was only a bluff.These Minyos are a different sort from the other tribes.They never kill anybody if they can help it.""You're wrong,"said the other,excitedly."It was that big chief there,with his head in a blanket,that sent those dogs to the right about.Hell!did you see them run at just a look from him?
He's a high and mighty feller,you bet.Look at his dignity!""That's so--he ain't no slouch,"said the other,gazing at Elijah's muffled head,critically."D----d if he ain't a born king."The sudden conflict and utter revulsion of emotion that those simple words caused in Elijah's breast was almost incredible.He had been at first astounded by the revelation of the peaceful reputation of the unknown tribe he had been called upon to govern;but even this comforting assurance was as nothing compared to the greater revelations implied in the speaker's praise of himself.
He,Elijah Martin!the despised,the rejected,the worthless outcast of Redwood Camp,recognized as a "born king,"a leader;his power felt by the very men who had scorned him!And he had done nothing--stop!had he actually done NOTHING?Was it not possible that he was REALLY what they thought him?His brain reeled under the strong,unaccustomed wine of praise;acting upon his weak selfishness,it exalted him for a moment to their measure of his strength,even as their former belief in his inefficiency had kept him down.Courage is too often only the memory of past success.
This was his first effort;he forgot he had not earned it,even as he now ignored the danger of earning it.The few words of unconscious praise had fallen like the blade of knighthood on his cowering shoulders;he had risen ennobled from the contact.Though his face was still muffled in his blanket,he stood erect and seemed to have gained in stature.
The braves had remained standing irresolute,and yet watchful,a few paces from their captives.Suddenly,Elijah,still keeping his back to the prisoners,turned upon the braves,with blazing eyes,violently throwing out his hands with the gesture of breaking bonds.Like all sudden demonstrations of undemonstrative men,it was extravagant,weird,and theatrical.But it was more potent than speech--the speech that,even if effective,would still have betrayed him to his countrymen.The braves hurriedly cut the thongs of the prisoners;another impulsive gesture from Elijah,and they,too,fled.When he lifted his eyes cautiously from his blanket,captors and captives had dispersed in opposite directions,and he was alone--and triumphant!
