160 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



"'Where did he die — how — when? Speak faster, 

 man.' 



" ' I don't know how he died. They say he died like 

 a hero ; and when attacking a fort at Appalachi, with 

 his good sword cleared a road so far into the stockade, 

 that his men could not get to him, and there he 

 remained and fell.' 



" ' And where were you, did you leave your chief, 

 heathen Moor ?' 



" ' No ; would I come back to Cuba had I done that ? 

 I was not with Narvaez's band ; they had separated 

 before into five jDarties.' 



" ' Who was with my husband ?' 



" ' They are all dead that saw him fall, or prisoners 

 among the Indians.' 



" ' There were Spanish prisoners among the Indians, 

 then ?' 



" ' Yes, they seized three or four ; ' but we counted 

 them dead, for they never kept SjDanish prisoners.' 



" ' What then did they do with them ?' 



"The soldier replied not in words, but taking his 

 unkempt locks in one hand, with the edge of the other 

 he made a circle around his head, and then with the first 

 hand gave a twist, and a wave that was horribly signifi- 

 cant of the scalping process, that had then but just 

 come to the ears of the Spaniard, and possessed, to his 

 mind, the double terror of mystery. 



"A groan and a long pause followed this panto- 

 mime. 



