Part 10 (2/2)

Thetribe from any sudden assault on the part of the Bannocks There were perhaps two hundred fighting-men in all Snoqual Willaht the summons from Multnomah the day before The Willamette was on horseback for the first tion, cohbors bordered on Mexico, had owned horses for perhaps a generation; but the sea-board tribes owned very few, and there were tribes on Puget Sound and at the mouth of the Colun tribe of the confederacy though they were, had but few horses

Thisfor it a whole string of _hiagua_ shells It was a pretty, delicate thing, and he was proud of it, and had shown his pride by slitting its ears and cutting off its tail, as was the barbarous custom with many of the Indians He sat on the little creature now; and loaded as it ith the double weight of himself and the heavy wooden saddle, it could hardly keep pace with the older and stronger horses

In the rear of all rode Cecil Grey and the Shoshone renegade who had helped hi before Cecil's forone by, and his face was still the handsoht years before It was stronger now,intercourse with the Indians there had coave nity to his mien His brown beard swept his breast, and his face was bronzed; but the lips quivered under the beard, and the cheek flushed and paled under the bronze

What had he been doing in the eight years that had elapsed since he left his New England home? Let us listen to his story in his oords as he tells it to the Shoshone renegade by his side

”I lived in a land far to the east, beside a great water My people hite like myself I was one of an order of oodness, s of a iven to the fathers,--a book that told how men should live in this world, and said that a beautiful place in the next would be given those who are good and true in this But by and by the Great Spirit began to whisper toof the book or the hope within it, and a longing rose within o and tell them; but there were ties that held me to my own people, and I knew not what to do Death cut those ties; and in e far in the west, and of Indians passing over it, and a voice spoke to e, for the Great Spirit had a mission for me there; and I went forth into the wilderness Ithem of God Many were evil and treated me harshly, others were kind and listened Soes and be one of them But even while they spoke the Great Spirit whispered to o on, and an unrest rose within me, and I could not stay

”So the years went by, and I wandered farther and farther to the west, across rivers and deserts, till I reached this tribe; and they said that farther on, toward the land of the Willah the e of stone built by the Gods when the world was young Then I knew that it was the bridge of o

But the tribe kept uest and half as prisoner, and would not letthe e and perforiven rand enthusiasarded hirave attention

”What became of the book that told of God?” he asked earnestly

”A chief took it from me and burned it; but its words ritten on my heart, and they could not be destroyed”

They rode on for a tied, the country a succession of canyons and ridges covered with green and waving grass but bare of trees Behind the in the distance To the west, Mt Hood, the great white ”Witch Mountain”

of the Indians, towered over the prairie, streaking the sky with a long floating wreath of volcanic smoke Before them, as they journeyed northward toward the Columbia, stretched out the endless prairie Now they descended into a deep ravine, now they toiled up a steep hillside The country literally rolled, undulating in i file of squaws and warriors, herds and pack-horses, wound like a serpent From the bands ahead came shouts and outcries,--the sounds of rude -drawn intonation so familiar to those who have been much with Indian horsemen,--the endlessly repeated ”ho-ha, ho-ha, ho-ha,” a kind of crude riding-song

After a while Cecil said, ”I have told you the story of my life, will you not tell ade, after a ht; ”you have shown me your heart as if you were my brother Noill show you irl in our village whoether; we talked of hohen I became a man and a warrior, she should becoould always love one another She grew up, and the chief offered many horses for her Her father took them She beca grew dark

I sat in

”When I met her, she turned her face aside, for was she not the wife of another? Yet I knew her heart hungered for me The chief knew it too, and when he spoke to her a cloud was ever on his brow and sharp lightning on his tongue But she was true Whose lodge was as clean as his? The as always carried, the water at hand, the ht that was in his heart to save hi He could never say, 'Why is it not done?' But her heart wasand not like a wife

”Me too he tried to tread under foot One day we assembled to hunt the buffalo Our horses were all collected Mine stood beforethat they were his What could I do? He was a chief

[Illustration: _The Great ”Witch Mountain” of the Indians_]

”I came no more to the council, I shared no raded, dishonored He told his hat he had done, and when she wept he beat her

”One evening I stood on a knoll overlooking the ; the chief's horses were there, and ht maddened me; my blood burned; I leaped on him; with two blows I laid him dead at my feet I covered him with earth and strewed leaves over the place Then I went to _her_ and told her what I had done, and urged her to fly with me

She answered only with tears I reminded her of all she had suffered, and told her I had done only as just I urged her again to fly

She only wept the o My heart was heavy but o alone to the desert None but the wild beasts of the wilderness will be with me The seekers of blood will follow on my trail; they may come on me while I ao alone'