Part 8 (2/2)

Their garb was light Leggins and ua_ shells were stripped fro for the word that was to scatter the the suiven thee themselves to its faithful delivery

”You prolance read every ar nor cataract nor ambuscade shall deter you from the delivery of this suh the spears of the ene the Santiah you fall in death, the suo on?”

The spokesman of the runners, the runner to the Chopponish, stepped forward With gestures of perfect grace, and in a voice that rang like a silver trumpet, he repeated the ancient oath of the Willamettes,--the oath used by the Shoshones to-day

”The earth hears us, the sun sees us Shall we fail in fidelity to our chief?”

There was a pause The distant cry of swans careat trees of council rustled in the breeze Multno the bohich he leaned Into that oneall the fierceness of his passion, all the grandeur of his will Far in the shade he saw Toholy, but the eyes of the orator sank once lance of the war-chief

”Go!”

An electric shock passed through all who heard; and except for the chiefs standing on its outskirts like sorove was eirdled the island, one runner took the trail to Puyallup, one the trail to Umatilla, one the path to Chelon, and one the path to Shasta; another departed toward the volcano-rent desert of Klaet Sound

The irrevocable suone forth; the council was inevitable,--the crisis must come

[Illustration: ”_The Earth hears us, the Sun sees us_”]

Long did Multnomah and his chiefs sit in council that day Resolute were the speeches that caretted that they had allowed Multno for the council: but there was no retreat

Across hills and canyons sped the fleet runners, on to the huge bark lodges of Puget Sound, the fisheries of the Columbia, and the crowded race-courses of the Yakies stood like a city to-day and were rolled up and strapped on the backs of horses to- loar against the Willa dreamers and medicine-men,--they came with the brief stern summons, and passed on to speak it to the tribes beyond

BOOK III

_THE GATHERING OF THE TRIBES_

CHAPTER I

THE BROKEN PEACE-PIPE

My full defiance, hate, and scorn

SCOTT

It is the day after the departure of the runners to call the great council,--eight years since Cecil Grey went out into the wilderness

S slowly upward from an Indian camp on the prairie not far froon Fifteen or twenty cone-shaped lodges, each made of e It swars and dirty, unclad children Heaps of refuse, heads and feet of ga the air with their disgusting odor Here and there an ancient withered speci its rays with a dull aniroup of warriors lie idly talking Sohtbaskets by filling the in hot stones[3] Horses are tethered near the lodges, and others are running loose on the prairie

There are not many of them The Indians have only scores nohere a century later Lewis and Clark found thousands; and there are old men in the camp who can recall the tiht or stolen from the tribes to the south