Page:Abraham Lincoln, A Story and a Play.djvu/33

 "A spy!" the soldiers shouted, and they rushed upon him. They felt such hate for all Indians that now, when one of these savages stood in their midst, they were eager to kill him without giving him a chance to speak for himself.

Their frightened prisoner drew out a bit of paper and held it up. It was a pass from General Cass saying the Indian was honest, and a friend of the white men.

"Perhaps General Cass did not write the pass," said one of the soldiers.

They hated the Indians so much, they did not wish to lose the chance of killing one of them now that they had him in their power, so they were quite ready to believe that the pass was not a true one.

"Shoot him!" cried one after another.

Several guns were aimed at the shivering old creature, and in another instant he would have been killed, when suddenly Captain Lincoln stood in front of his men, with stern face and flashing eyes. Rushing between them and the Indian, he cried out:

"Hold on! I command you not to fire." At the same moment he knocked up the guns that