The shock terrified the whole camp.  
Aunt Peggy dropped the piece of meat she was cooking, and sprang back with a . The other Indians, accustomed as they were to violence, stared in blank wonder, while those on the fallen tree leaped to their feet and gazed at the figure of the Indian as he lay on his face, with his tomahawk in his vise-like grip.
 
Jake Golcher was dazed, and neither nor stirred until Maggie, in the very depths of her agony, ran to him and exclaimed:
 
"What is the meaning of this? Was he seeking father's life? If he was, it was you who told him to do it!"
 
The Tory looked in the white face of the girl, and said, in a surly voice:
 
"I didn't know anything about it."
 
"Oh, Jake," she continued, talking rapidly, and in such mental that every eye was upon her; "if this is your work, a just God will punish you for it. Father has never sought to injure you. We are neighbors, and belong to the same race—"
 
He attempted to turn away, but she caught his arm, and faced him about.
 
"You shall hear me. If you want human lives, take mine—take Eva's, but spare his gray hairs; do him a wrong, and as sure as our Heavenly Father above, a punishment shall come to you. Show him mercy, treat us as human beings, and you will thank Him to your dying day that He led you aright, when you went so far astray."
 
The father would have gone forward and her away, but he was held by her soulful .
 
She staggered back and would have fallen, had not Aunt Peggy, who, after all, was the most cool-headed one in the party, seen what was coming and caught her in her arms.
 
Half-supporting and half-dragging her, she got her back to the tree, where she gently seated her.
 
Poor Maggie threw her arms around the good woman's neck and gave way to , while her aunt tried to her.
 
Mr. Brainerd sat like a statue, but his lips trembled, and it required all the power of his will to keep from breaking down as as did Maggie herself, who, flinging one of her arms around weeping Eva, gathered her and their aunt in an embrace, and surrendered to her tempest of grief.
 
The Senecas looked on, but if there was any of tenderness in their nature it did not struggle to the surface, and the trees around them could not have betrayed less emotion.
 
As for Jake Golcher, he scanned the picture with darker passions than those of the themselves.
 
He did not stir, but, when he saw Habakkuk McEwen look i............