Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume II Read Online Free PDF Page A

especially a Red man, and here Harrison was testing him, testing him right to the limit.
    “Now that everybody’s comfortable,” said Harrison,“why don’t you set down and tell us what you came for, Ta-Kumsaw.”
    Ta-Kumsaw didn’t sit. Didn’t close the door, didn’t take a step farther into the room. “I speaking for Shaw-Nee, Caska-Skeeaw, Pee-Orawa, Winny-Baygo.”
    “Now, Ta-Kumsaw, you know that you don’t even speak for all the Shaw-Nee, and you sure don’t speak for the others.”
    “All tribes who sign General Wayne’s treaty.” Ta-Kumsaw went on as if Harrison hadn’t said a thing. “Treaty says Whites don’t sell whisky to Reds.”
    “That’s right,” said Harrison. “And we’re keeping that treaty.”
    Ta-Kumsaw didn’t look at Hooch, but he lifted his hand and pointed at him. Hooch felt the gesture as if Ta-Kumsaw had actually touched him with that finger. It didn’t make him mad this time, it plain scared him. He heard that some Reds had a come-hither so strong that didn’t no hex protect you, so they could lure you off into the woods alone and slice you to bits with their knives, just to hear you scream. That’s what Hooch thought of, when he felt Ta-Kumsaw point to him with hatred.
    “Why are you pointing at my old friend Hooch Palmer?” asked Harrison.
    “Oh, I reckon nobody likes me today,” Hooch said. He laughed, but it didn’t dispel his fear after all.
    “He bring his flatboat of whisky,” said Ta-Kumsaw.
    “Well, he brought a lot of things,” said Harrison. “But if he brought whisky, it’ll be delivered to the sutler here in the fort and not a drop of it will be sold to the Reds, you can be sure. We uphold that treaty, Ta-Kumsaw, even though you Reds aren’t keeping it too good lately. It’s got so flatboats can’t travel alone down the Hio no more, my friend, and if things don’t let up, I reckon the army’s going to have to take some action.”
    “Burn a village?” asked Ta-Kumsaw. “Shoot down our babies? Our old people? Our women?”
    “Where do you get these ideas?” said Harrison. He sounded downright offended, even though Hooch knew right well that Ta-Kumsaw was describing the typical army operation.
    Hooch spoke right up, in fact. “You Reds burn out helpless farmers in their cabins and pioneers on their flat-boats, don’t you? So why do you figure your villages should be any safer, you tell me that!”
    Ta-Kumsaw still didn’t look at him. “English law says, Kill the man who steals your land, you are not bad. Kill a man to steal his land, and you are very bad. When we kill White farmers, we are not bad. When you kill Red people who live here a thousand years, you are very bad. Treaty says, stay all east of My-Ammy River, but they don’t stay, and you help them.”
    “Mr. Palmer here spoke out of turn,” said Harrison. “No matter what you savages do to our people—torturing the men, raping the women, carrying off the children to be slaves—we don’t make war on the helpless. We are civilized, and so we behave in a civilized manner.”
    “This man will sell his whisky to Red men. Make them lie in dirt like worms. He will give his whisky to Red women. Make them weak like bleeding deer, do all things he says.”
    “If he does, we will arrest him,” said Harrison. “We will try him and punish him for breaking the law.”
    “If he does, you
not
will arrest him,” said Ta-Kumsaw. “You will share pelts with him. You will keep him safe.”
    “Don’t call me a liar,” said Harrison.
    “Don’t lie,” said Ta-Kumsaw.
    “If you go around talking to White men like this, Ta-Kumsaw, old boy, one of them’s going to get real mad at you and blast your head off.”
    “Then I know you will arrest him. I know you will try him and punish him for breaking the law.” Ta-Kumsaw said it without cracking a smile, but Hooch had traded with the Reds enough to know their kind of joke.
    Harrison nodded gravely. It occurred to Hooch that Harrison