Adventure Magazine Cover — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Doom Trail de Veulle, who once lived for a while amongst us. Him you will remem- ber.” The bronze mask of the roy-an-eh’s face was contorted for one brief instant by a flare of passion. “‘T remember him,” he said simply. “De Veulle comes from Onontio’s King with a message for the Canadian tribes, O my uncle. He and Murray and Joncaire work together to defeat our friend Ga-en- gwa-ra-go and drive the English from the land. Ga-en-gwa-ra-go has sent my brother Ormerod, who has lived amongst the French and speaks their tongue, to spy out the ground at Jagara. I go with him. After that, if we may, we shall seek the Doom Trail and clean out the Cahnuaga dogs.” For five minutes Do-ne-ho-ga-weh smoked in silence. Then he emptied his pipe. “Tam glad that Ga-en-gwa-ra-go keeps his eyes open, O ‘my nephew,” he said. “But I can not understand why the Engligh . disagree amongst themselves, so that one faction work for Onontio. However, they are white people, and | am a red man. Per- haps that is the reason. Do you wish my counsel ?”’ Ta-wan-ne-ars inclined his head. ‘The Messesagues you met on the Mo- hawk told you that de Tonty was in trouble. I do not think word of this can yet have reached Joncaire. My advice is that you dress yourself as a Messesague warrior, O my nephew, and that your white brother— whose name I can not coil my tongue around—call himself by a French name. Then the two of you may go to Joncaire and say that you have just come from Le de Troit and give him the news and he will make you welcome. So you may spy out his plans at Jagara.” “Ja,” assented Corlaer in English; ‘that isa goodt plan. You needt a goodt plan for a fox like Joncaire. By , | hope you fool him andt bring home his scalp.” “The news which Ga-en-gwa-ra-go asks for will be sufficient,” replied Ta-wan-ne-ars. “OQ my uncle, we thank you. Now we may sleep with ease.” “That is well,’ -said rising. He lifted his arm in salute. “May Ha-wen-ne-yu, the Great Spirit, and the Ho-no-che-no-keh, his Invisible Aids, have you in their keeping.” the roy-an-eh, 99 CHAPTER XV JONCAIRE IS HOSPITABLE T WAS a week before we left De-o-nun- da-ga-a, and although the delay irked me it could not be avoided, for the pro- longed absence of Ta-wan-ne-ars from his post as Warden of the Western Door of the Long House had permitted an accumulation of questions of political and military impor- tance which required his attention. He spent the days either in consultations with the roy-an-ehs and chiefs and delegations from neighboring tribes or in inspecting the marches. Corlaer departed with a small band of braves upon a hunting-trip, but I availed myself of the opportunity to gain an insight into the workings of the remark- able military confederacy which held the balance of power in America. Do-ne-ho-ga-weh, as Guardian of the Western Door, was the political custodian of the most important frontier of the League. As such he was supreme. But Ta-wan-ne-ars with his assistant chief, So-no-so-wa,(a) of the Turtle Clan, were the military captains of the Western Door. They were the only permanent war- chiefs in the confederacy, all others being elected to temporafy command in times of emergency. They were also assistants to Do-ne-ho-ga-weh and attended him in this capacity at meetings of the Ho-yar-na-go- war, the great council of the roy-an-chs. Their duty was to keep in proper subjection the numerous tributary nations, beyond the actual boundaries of the Long House, and equally to safeguard the Western Door from attack by any enemy. So-no-so-wa at the time of my visit was absent on a trip to the south to chastise a band of Shawanese who had presumed to invade the hunting-grounds of the League. So jealous was the watch kept over the su- premacy of the Long House that the slight- est aggression or impertinence, even against a tributary nation, was punished at the ear- liest opportunity. One of Ta-wan-ne-ars’ first acts was to organize a war-party to harry the Miamis in retaliation for an attack upon a village of the Andastes in the Susquehanna Valley who were subject to the jurisdiction of the League. (a) ‘‘Great Oyster Shell.’’ The names of two permanent war- chiefs were really titles of honor, and were hereditary in an indirect line like the rank of roy-an-eh, the idea being to select the ablest man of his generation in a particular family. * COMMICOOOKS (E©)