Without hesitating, therefore,
he avowed the purpose with which he had landed, merely justifying
it by the fact that the government of the province had bid high
for scalps. This frank avowal was received by the Iroquois with
evident satisfaction, not so much, however, on account of the
advantage it gave them in a moral point of view, as by its proving
that they had captured a man worthy of occupying their thoughts and
of becoming a subject of their revenge. Hurry, when interrogated,
confessed the truth, though he would have been more disposed to
concealment than his sterner companion, did the circumstances very
well admit of its adoption. But he had tact enough to discover
that equivocation would be useless, at that moment, and he made
a merit of necessity by imitating a frankness, which, in the case
of Hutter, was the offspring of habits of indifference acting on
a disposition that was always ruthless, and reckless of personal
consequences.
As soon as the chiefs had received the answers to their questions,
they walked away in silence, like men who deemed the matter
disposed of, all Hetty's dogmas being thrown away on beings trained
in violence from infancy to manhood.
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