THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS. 107 



and the hanging folds of the Spanish moss. But, for all this, an 

 eye was on her in the darkness, and an ear heard her very breath- 

 ings, and when she landed, and her bark canoe was hidden in the 

 joint-grass, she passed so near Yahchilane that the tails of fox- 

 squirrels, that fringed her kirtle, touched the shoulder of the 

 young wife. 



" The girl, once in the path toward the village, walked swifter 

 still, now and then pausing to listen, when in the deeper shadows. 

 On her route, she crossed a dense grove of wild plum-trees, where 

 the scarlet fruit dotted the ground, and the low-reaching branches 

 made a shadow as dark as a stormy night. When in the centre 

 of the grove she started, uttering a quick, aspirated sound, for a 

 hand was laid on her shoulder, from behind. She turned, but 

 could not see who it was, the grove was so obscure. 



" ' Who is it ? ' she demanded, in a low voice. 



" ' An eagle who had a mate,' said Yahchilane, in a voice so 

 quick and fierce that the young girl could not recognise it, though 

 she cowered from the threatening shadow and rasping voice that 

 continued. ' And who are you ? The wild cat that killed him.' 



" Nothing more was said, though the ground doves that roosted 

 in the grove flew frightened away. If any more there was, the 

 lamentations from the town, and the beating drum, prevented it 

 from being heard. And then, down among the mourners, with her 

 proud head at its uttermost height, and her black eye flashing 

 fire, strode the chieftain's daughter. Old chiefs lay there with 

 their lips in the dust, but hers were as proud as a conqueror's ; the 

 women of the tribe were there, with distorted faces, beating with 

 hollow canes the war-drums of the Apalaches ; the conch shells 

 uttered their loudest wail, and maidens sat, in their shame, un- 

 covered in the sand; but with no semblance of sorrow on her 

 sovereign face, Yahchilane walked among the bonfires that lighted 

 all the town, and across the council-lawn, and went into her 

 father's house. 



"The next morning, when the young girls of the village, in 

 laughing troops, with palmetto baskets, wound down the path to 

 gather fruit for their simple meal, they found one of their number 

 dead in the grove. A knife of fish-bone, with a carved handle, 



