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Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919

"The Scouts of the Valley"


"Henry," he said, "I feel all through me that somethin' terrible
is comin'. That woman back thar has clean give me the shivers.
I'm more afraid of her than I am of Timmendiquas or
Thayendanegea. Do you think she is a witch?"
"There are no such things as witches, but she was uncanny. I'm
afraid, Sol, that your feeling about something terrible going to
happen is right."
It was about two o'clock in the morning when they reached the
islet. Tom Ross was awake, but the other two slumbered
peacefully on. They told Tom what they had seen, and he told
them the identity of the terrible woman.
"I heard about her at Pittsburgh, an' I've heard tell, too, about
her afore I went to Kentucky to live. She's got a tre-men-jeous
power over the Iroquois. They think she ken throw spells, an'
all that sort of thing-an' mebbe she kin."
Two nights later it was Henry and Tom who lay in the thickets,
and then they saw other formidable arrivals in the Indian camp.
Now they were white men, an entire company in green uniforms, Sir
John Johnson's Royal Greens, as Henry afterward learned; and with
them was the infamous John Butler, or " Indian" Butler, as he was
generally known on the New York and Pennsylvania frontier,
middle-aged, short and fat, and insignificant of appearance, but
energetic, savage and cruel in nature.


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