Part 14 (2/2)

”You have chosen the tomahawk instead of the peace-pipe Shall Multnomah choose the tomahawk also? Know you not that Multnomah holds your lives in his hand, and that he can crush you like an eggshell if he chooses?”

The war-chief lifted his arers till his hand was clinched The eyes of Willaers, with their own strained on their toive the other half,--the doard gesture? The baffled rebels tasted all the bitterness of death in that agonizing suspense They felt that their lives were literally in his grasp; and so the stern autocrat wished theet

At length he spoke

”Drop your weapons and Multnoet what he has seen, and all will be well Strike but a blow, and not one of you will ever go back over the trail to his home”

Then he turned to the chiefs, and there was that in his tones which told them to expect no mercy

”How coainst Multnomah in his own council and on his own land? Speak! chiefs must answer for their people”

There was sullen silence for a little ti men; their blood was hot, they were rash, and the chiefs could not control the er” He gave a signal to certain of the Willamettes who had come up behind the rebellious leaders, as they stood confused and hesitating in the council They were seized and their hands bound ere they could defend themselves; indeed, they edly

”Take them down the Wauna in the sea-canoes and sell the the coast Their people shall see their faces no more Slaves in the ice-land of the North shall they live and die”

The swarthy cheeks of the captives grew ashen, and a shudder went through that trapped and surrounded mob of malcontents Indian slavery was always terrible; but to be slaves to the brutal Indians of the north, starved, beaten, mutilated, chilled, and benumbed in a land of perpetual frost; to perish at last in the bleak snow and winter of almost arctic coasts,--that was a fate worse than the torture-stake

Dreadful as it was, not a chief asked for rove and down the bank to the river's edge A large sea-canoe,at the beach They quickly elided out into the current and down the streae hid it froht, and the rebels were forever beyond the hope of rescue

Swift and eance of Multnomah fallen, and the insurrection had been crushed at a blow It had taken but a moment, and it had all passed under the eyes of the malcontents, ere still surrounded by the loyal warriors

When the canoe had disappeared and the gaze of that startled and awed esture of dismissal The lines drew aside and the rebels were free

While they were still bewildered and uncertain what to do, Multnomah instantly and with consummate address called the attention of the council to other things, thereby apparently assu the malcontents to understand that no further punishment was intended Sullenly, reluctantly, they seemed to accept the situation, and no further indications of revolt were seen that day

Popular young men, the bravest of their several tribes, were appointed by Multnomah to fill the vacant chieftainshi+ps; and that didthe discontent Moreover, some troubles between different tribes of the confederacy, which had been referred to hith the council ended for the day, the star of the Willaly subdued

So the first great crisis passed

That evening a little band of Willamette warriors led the rebel sachem, still bound and blindfolded, down to the river's bank, where a canoe lay waiting them His wife followed and tried to enter it with him, as if deteruard thrust her rudely away, and started the canoe As it ly, as if she could not let her warrior go One of the guards struck her hands brutally with his paddle, and she released her hold The boat glided out into the river

Not a word of farewell had passed between the condemned man and his wife, for each disdained to show emotion in the presence of the ene after his and eht have been regarded as a sy the Indians, as she stood there with her bruised hands, throbbing with pain where the cruel blow had fallen, hanging, in sullen scorn of pain, uncared for by her side So she stood watching the canoe glide down the river, till it ed up in the gathering shadows of evening

The canoe dropped down the river to a lonely point on the northern shore, a place much frequented by wolves There, many miles below the encampment on the island, they dise the, though he must have known that his hour was close at hand They bound hih roots that ran over the ground like a network, and fros could be passed around the the rawhide thongs so tight that they sank into the flesh, and knotting theled him It was on his lips to ask thehting, though it ith but one naked hand But he hated them too much to ask even that small favor, and so submitted in disdainful silence

The warriors all went back to the canoe, except one, an old hunter, fa every cry of bird or beast Standing beside the bound and prostratein a thousand echoes and died away, evoking no response He listened abut the deep heart-beat of the man at his feet Another cry, with its myriad echoes, was followed by the oppressive sense of stillness that succeeds an outcry in a lonely wood Then came a faint, a far-off sound, the answer of a wolf to a supposed mate The Indian replied, and the answer sounded nearer; then another blended with it, as the pack began to gather Again the Indian gave the cry, wild and wolfish, as only a barbarian, half-beast by virtue of his own nature, could have uttered it An awful chorus of barking and howling burst through the forest as the wolves caer for blood

The Indian turned and rejoined his comrades at the canoe They pushed out into the river, but held the boat in the current by an occasional paddle-stroke, and waited listening Back at the foot of the tree the captive strained every nerve and hty effort to break the cords that bound hiid h their thick covering to see the approach of his foes Presently a fierce outburst of howls and snarls told the listeners that the wolves had found their prey They lingered and listened a little longer, but no sound or cry was heard to tell of the last agony under those rending fangs; the chief died in silence Then the paddles were dipped again in the water, and the canoe glided up the river to the camp

When they reached the shore they found the rebel's wife awaiting them in the place where they had left her She asked no questions; she only came close and looked at their faces in the dusk, and read there the thing she sought to know Then she went silently away In a little while the Indian wail for the dead was sounding through the forest