Grail Quest Read Online Free Page A

Grail Quest
Book: Grail Quest Read Online Free
Author: D. Sallen
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Island. He could barely stand. One of the soldiers who got to him first raised his gun. Noticing something strange about the swimmer, I commanded the sentry to hold fire until I got there. “Don’t shoot!” I hollered again. “Capture him! Take him alive!”
    Exhausted by his swimming the chap gave little resistance. The soldiers trussed him like a wild animal. I turned him over on his back. Not only did he have blond hair, he had blue eyes and his skin was the color of wet sand. Most Naturals are a definite red, or at least mahogany. I judged him to be about fourteen years. We hustled him back to the fort and put him under guard. I sent for Pungo. While waiting for him I tried a few Indian words on the captive. He didn’t understand me. Then he said what sounded like, “Danoldare, Danoldare.”
    When Pungo arrived he spoke to the captive in his own Powhatan language, and got no reaction. Then Pungo tried sign language and the stranger struggled with his bonds. Except for his feet tied together, I ordered him to be freed of his bonds. Now he actually smiled, gestured back to Pungo and repeated the words: “Danoldare, Danoldare.”
    Pungo looked shocked. “ Danoldare . That his name…his White Man name! ”
    “White Man name?” I repeated.
    The lad struck his own chest and said, “Danoldare. Danoldare, Inglis, Danoldare Inglis.”
    I was stunned. Then after recovering my usual aplomb, “You talk English?”
    “Say some Inglis. Mother teach. Mother Inglis.”
    “Is your English name Dan’l Dare?”
    “Yes, Danoldare, Inglis name. Moyock, warrior name. Inglis mother say Danoldare. Red-Indian father, Potecasi, call me Moyock.”
    Captain Smyth arrived and being brought up to date said, “This is a stunning development. The governor and the full council need to be appraised. Dan’l Dare may shed some light on the mysterious disappearance of Raleigh’s Lost Colony in 1585.”
    Until the council could meet in deliberation, the Governor ordered that Moyock be untied but confined in the gaol. Other than that he was to be treated as a guest. Being one of the few educated men in the camp, I offered to interrogate him. Between Pungo and me we learned his history.
    As best as we could determine, the survivors of the Raleigh Colony, racked by disease and starvation, headed inland and were taken in by the Croatan Naturals. Their numbers continued to diminish, and after Dan’l’s father died, Chief Potecasi married his mother. Moyock was their only offspring. Though doted on by his father, his step-siblings hated him. When his older sister, Virginia, and then his mother died, he fled north. Rumors of the English colony on the James had filtered down to the Croatan.
    Because of dissension in the town over Moyock’s disposition, I remained as close to him as I could. Rations were short, and those who considered him just another Natural, resented him getting food. As it was, when I could, I slipped him extra bits. Pungo and I continued to interrogate him about his own background, and about the fate of the Raleigh colony. The more we talked, the better he remembered English that his mother and sister spoke to him. He came out of the water with an English knife in his belt. Smyth took it from him, but it gave credence to his tale. Soon there were also complaints about me.
    “’Stead of gabbing with that half-breed, why ain’t the great hunter out hunting? We need food more’n history.” “The breed ain’t no use to us, why don’t Allen get rid of him?” “From what I hear, Allen’s a Natural lover now. How can we trust him?”
    I was anxious to get Moyock out of gaol and to have him accepted by the populace. I appealed to Captain Smyth. “Moyock talks like he has learned all the Natural hunting skills from his father. If I could take him out in the woods, he might earn his place here. Despite his Natural father, I hope people will remember he is English.”
    “Some think his father is more important than his
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