A man's son or brother or father or mother has
claims upon him. Otasite was naught to me, a mere _eeankke_!" (a
captive). "I owed the child no duty. My love was voluntary. I gave it a
free gift; no duty! And he was little, and drooping, and meagre, and ill
all the time! But he grew; soon no such boy in the Cherokee nation, soon
hardly such a warrior in all the land--not even Otasite of Watauga, nor
yet Otasite of Eupharsee; perhaps at his age Oconostota excelled"
(Oconostota always was preeminently known as the "Great Warrior"). He
paused to shake his head and meditate on difficult comparisons and
instances of prowess. After an interval which, long enough, seemed to
the trembling trader illimitable, he recommenced abruptly: "Says the
Goweno long time ago to me, 'Is not there a white youth among you?' I
say, 'He is content; he has no white friends, it seems.' Says the Goweno
to me, 'Ah, ah, we must look into this!' and says no more."
Colannah flung back his head and laughed so long and so loud that every
echo of the sarcastic guttural tones, striking back from the stone walls
of the cavern, smote Varney with as definite a shock as a blow.
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