Running Bear hung his head to avoid eye contact with his chief and his mother, as did Deer Shadow.
But though they would not meet Wolf Dancer’s eyes, they knew they must reveal where they had been, and why.
Deer Shadow jerked his head up and gazed with wavering eyes at his chief’s. “We meant no harm,” he stammered. “It was something that seemed full of adventure and fun while we were putting our plan together. Since our father’s death, everything has been so…so—”
“Tell me what you did,” Wolf Dancer said tightly, interrupting Deer Shadow. “Now. And stop stammering like someone who does not know the skills of speaking. What have you braves done that makes you look and act so guilty? Is it something that will bring danger to our village?”
Almost in the same breath, Running Bear and Deer Shadow blurted out the truth. As they spoke, many of their friends and neighbors were coming from their homes to see what had caused their chief’s voice to rise above its usual level.
“We know now that we should not have done it,” Running Bear said, swallowing hard. “And we never meant to harm the girl, just to talk with her and share our customs with her. We were going to let her return to her home tomorrow.”
“Do you mean you left this defenseless girl alone in your…your…tree house tonight?” Moon Beam gasped, her voice trembling with emotion. The white panther stalks the Everglades both day and night, as well as many other things that could …more than likely will…harm the poor child.”
“I will not take the time to hear any more of your excuses about what you have wrongly done,” Wolf Dancer said harshly. “Take me to her. Immediately!”
After having heard their description of the young girl, Wolf Dancer had no doubt who she was. He knew she must be the daughter of the woman who intrigued him so, for he had seen the child with her.
He could only imagine what was going on in this mother’s mind…a crazed sort of grief over the unexplained disappearance of a beloved child.
He had to make this right for her. He only prayed he wasn’t too late. It would take only one snakebite to end the girl’s life.
And if that happened, he knew the child’s mother would be inconsolable. She might even bring the soldiers from Fort James into his village, resulting in all of Wolf Dancer’s people being removed to the reservation where so many other Seminole people now lived.
If he had to live there, penned up like an animal, everything within him—hope, trust, happiness—would die. His life would end as surely as if he had been shot by a poisoned arrow.
His people might pay dearly for the misguided acts of these two young braves.
“Take me to her,” Wolf Dancer said, ready to leave. He stopped abruptly when he saw Joshua standing outside the hut that had been assigned to him, a home for as long as the black man wanted it.
Wolf Dancer hurried over to Joshua. He quickly explained to him what had happened.
He saw immediate fear in Joshua’s eyes.
; “Will you come with me?” Wolf Dancer asked, knowing that the black man was well enough now to accompany him. “The girl who has been wronged is one you know very well. It would be good if you were there to assure her that she is no longer in danger, that the two young braves who wronged her did so only out of curiosity, and that they acted without the knowledge of the Wind Clan as a whole.”
Wolf Dancer hoped that Joshua would see the need of his being there when they found the wronged girl. He hoped Joshua could help calm her. “Yessuh, I’ll go with you,” Joshua said.
He was now dressed far differently than he had ever before been dressed. He was no longer in raggedy clothes that the white owners of the plantation gave him. He wore the same type of buckskin as all the other men in the Seminole village.
He especially enjoyed wearing the tunic that had been made from Spanish moss. He liked the feel of it against his dark, smooth skin.
He also had exchanged his worn-out shoes for moccasins.
He now felt more Indian than black. And he felt special. He had a true friend now, and that friend was a powerful Seminole chief.
Joshua was the only man that Wolf Dancer asked to accompany him.
The two men, along with Running Bear and Deer Shadow, hurried to the beached pirogues while everyone else stayed behind, whispering about whytwo of their young braves would do something so foolhardy.
Moon Beam stood away from them all, ashamed.
At the tree house, beneath the flickering light of the one torch attached to the wall, Dorey was finally able to slide free of the thongs at her wrists, then quickly untie those at her ankles.
Full darkness had come, making the Everglades pitch-black and frightening.
Everywhere outside the tree house, Dorey could now hear the night sounds of the swamp, but she was not able to identify any of them.