"Kill 'em all; kill everybody," cried Deering in drunken glee. He
took the club and pounded with it on the ground.
Pipe repeated his former performance, as also did Half King, after
which he handed the black, knotted symbol of death to Jim Girty.
Three had declared for saving the Christians, and three for the
death penalty.
Six pairs of burning eyes were fastened on the Deaths-head.
Pipe and Half King were coldly relentless; Deering awoke to a brutal
earnestness; McKee and Elliott watched with bated breath. These men
had formed themselves into a tribunal to decide on the life or death
of many, and the situation, if not the greatest in their lives,
certainly was one of vital importance.
Simon Girty cursed all the fates. He dared not openly oppose the
voting, and he could not, before those cruel but just chiefs, try to
influence his brother's vote.
As Jim Girty took the war-club, Simon read in his brother's face the
doom of the converted Indians and he muttered to himself:
"Now tremble an' shrink, all you Christians!"
Jim was not in a hurry. Slowly he poised the war-club. He was
playing as a cat plays with a mouse; he was glorying in his power.
The silence was that of death. It signified the silence of death.
The war-club descended with violence.
"Feed the Christians to ther buzzards!"
Chapter XXIII.
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