CHAPTER XVI THE SIGNAL FIRE "Mammon led them on: Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven; for e'en in heaven his looks and thoughts "The lust of gold succeeds the rags of conquest: EVERAL weeks had passed since the duel between To-cus and Mandush, and while the former lay suffering tortures ere his wounds were healed, important events had followed each other in quick succession. Friction between the whites and Indians in all the New England colonies was growing rapidly; duplicity and treachery were the rule rather than the exception in the policy of the colonists towards the Indians, and the latter, when duped and fleeced, feeling and knowing the injustice, were fast awakening from their delusion, and their hatred and resentment were daily becoming more menacing. Many of the more powerful and warlike tribes were already on the war-path to wreak a merited vengeance upon the conscienceless hypocrites, and tribes that in time past had made war upon each other were becoming allies of their ancient enemies and uniting for the purpose of driving out the com mon enemy. The upright among the colonists saw the danger, but were powerless to stay the workings of a policy which had for its object the acquisition of the whole country. Emissaries from the hostiles were being sent in all directions to form an alliance of the tribes that were neutral or friendly to the pale-faces. A knowledge of this on the part of the more avaricious and unprincipled of the whites afforded them an opportunity for the exhibition of that nameless deviltry miscalled diplomacy, the equal of which the world has never seen, and for which they must forever stand pre-eminently as past-masters in perfidy. While flattering and professing unbounded friendship for their red brothers, the most coldblooded and inhuman atrocities were perpetrated from time to time, as the advantage favoured, that were ever inflicted by a civilised upon a savage race, since God spoke light out of darkness, order out of chaos, and all in the name of a living and ascended Christ. They were systematically creating strife between rival chieftains, provoking each to war upon the other and then when the tribes were weakened by the ravage of fierce strife, becoming the allies of the one to annihilate the other, and, serpent-like, re-coiling and striking the bosoms that had been bared in their defence, often employing modes of torture, and practicing upon the unfortunate victims. a refinement of cruelty to which even the inventive genius of the red Indian was a stranger. Instances were not wanting where white men, by premeditated action, had surprised and butchered whole villages of peaceable Indians, not to mete out vengeance, for surely the women and children were innocent, but to indulge the love for the shedding of blood, or to check the growth in population among the tribes. Since his contact with civilisation,-that child of the serpent, that charity that vaunteth itself and is puffed up,-the Indian has been, and is, what his environment, together with the curse of strong water and the injustice practiced upon him in unnameable ways at the hands of the white race, have made him. Secret emissaries had visited the various tribes of Sea-wan-ha-ka to induce them to raise the tomahawk against the pale-faces; but notwithstanding the fact that they were smarting under the injustice shared by their brothers in the colonies, they were restrained through the unbounded influence of Lyon Gardiner over Wyandance. The ships of the English navy that were engaged in protecting the colonists along the seaboard, and in watching the Dutch at New Amsterdam, were wont to rendezvous in Gardiner Bay, that afforded ample protection to the whites in the country adjacent, who, with impunity, subjected the Indians to every indignity, while the presence of the ships served to restrain and intimidate the latter. So much, then, for the vaunted friendship of Wyandance for the pale-faces. True it is that he saw much of them, and to a degree was, in turn, flattered and coerced by them, now promised protection and rich reward to do this or that, or threatened with abandonment and disaster if he demurred. In company with and under the protection of the whites, he visited some of the forts and seats of government of the colonies. He saw and knew their growing power, and keenly felt the helplessness of his people to rebel, so isolated were they in their island home, so completely were they encircled by the coils of the serpent. Deeply conscious of this, and trembling for the fate of his race, what wonder that, from time to time, we find him relinquishing, with unwilling hand, the heritage of the Lords of the Soil. Advancing in years, his power broken, and feeling sadly the loss of his elder brother, he was weary of life. But recently he had been bullied into releasing Manhansett-aha-quash-a-warnuck to the white man, for his signature as Grand Sachem of the United Tribes was necessary to secure the island over which his nephew, Yo-kee, reigned. He had dreamed that ere long he would be called to the spirit land, and in this frame of mind we find him giving willing consent to the marriage of his daughter with To-cus, that she might have a protector when the spirit of her father had gone to join its kindred in the home of the Manitou. The perfidy of Guy Kingsland and his hypocritical attempt to win the love of Heather Flower had at last been laid bare before the proud Sachem, and had incensed him not a little. Enraged and mortified at his discomfiture to compass the ruin of the daughter of the Montauks, and profoundly mystified at the sudden failure of the princess to meet him at the trysting, Kingsland had, for wholesome reasons, discontinued his visits to Montauk, and in his inmost heart he had sworn vengeance, and vowed to humiliate the proud and fiery princess, whose visits to her friend had abruptly ceased, much to the wonder and grief of Damaris. Major Gordon had concluded to entrust his future son-in-law with the details of his plot, which, it is needless to say, met with the most hearty approval from the Lieutenant, although the Major had not the slightest suspicion of Kingsland's defection towards his promised bride. The ignorance of the details of the plot, even to minute particulars, had been feigned when the Lieutenant acted as an envoy to Captain Mason. The intimate political relations existing between the proprietor of the Isle of Wight and the Commandant of the English fort at Saybrook, their frequent exchange of visits to each other, and on board the English ships that frequented the adjacent waters, and the vigilance and caution observed by them at all times, rendered it improbable that any considerable number of Indians in canoes could cross, unseen, the waters that separated Montauk from the mainland on the north. About this period the friendliness of the Narragansetts towards the whites was strengthened by divers means, and by conferences between the Commandant at Saybrook and Ninigret, that, in the light of events closely following, is open to speculation. Certain it is that Ninigret became fully and accurately informed of the time and place of the contemplated wedding of Heather Flower, the daughter of his old enemy, Wyandance. The reward he received for the significant part he played in the stirring events we are about to chronicle is not certainly known, but an extensive tract of land, several square miles in extent, and lying in the westward end of Sea-wan-ha-ka, was coveted by Major Gordon, who had been an adventurous and speculative land-grabber, and who, thus far, had failed to bring any influence to bear upon Wyandance to induce that Sachem to sell the land, which, ere long, he was to give as a ransom. Meanwhile, the preparations for the wedding of Heather Flower had been ripening and were fully completed when the appointed time came. On the night preceding the nuptial eve a strange, |