Part 21 (2/2)

”I do not wish to go away But God has called reat work, and I must do it I dare not turn aside You cannot kno dear your presence is to me, or how bitter it is forthe tribes will be scattered to the winds and the curse of God will be on me as a false and fallen prophet”

He spoke with a kind of fierceness, striving blindly to battle down thewithin, and his tones had a harshness that he was too agitated to notice She drew back involuntarily There canity he had never seen before She was but a recluse and a girl, but she was of royal lineage by right of both her parents, and his words had roused a spirit worthy the daughter of Multno a curse upon you?

Do not fear, I shall no longer ask you to stay Wallulah shall take herself out of your life”

She gave hio from her forever; then she said simply, ”Farewell,” and turned away

But in spite of her dignity there was an anguish written on her sweet pale face that he could not resist All his strength of resolve, all his conviction of duty, crumbled into dust as she turned away; and he was conscious only that he loved her, that he could not let her go

How it happened he never knew, but she was clasped in his ar on brow and cheek in a passionate outburst that could be kept back no longer At first, she trembled in his arms and shrank away fro herself in the love that was hers at last After awhile she lifted a face over which a shadow of pain yet lingered

”But you said I would bring you a curse; you feared--”

He stopped her with a caress

”Even curses would be sweet if they caet what I said, remember only that I love you!”

And she was content

Around theht; the hours caolden love-drearay old earth, all desolate as it is with centuries of woe and tears

But while they talked there was on hi that he was disloyal to his mission, disloyal to her; that their love could have but one ending, and that a dark one

Still he strove hard to forget everything, to shut out all the world,--drinking to the full the bliss of the present, blinding his eyes to the pain of the future

But after they parted, when her presence ithdrawn and he was alone, he felt like a man faithless and dishonored; like a prophet who had bartered the salvation of the people to whoe for a worace and death

As he went back to the caht, he was startled by a distant roar, and saw through the tree-tops fla fro one of its periodical outbursts But to Cecil's land, and unconsciously to hied in later years with the superstition of the Indians a, that o up into the black skies of night, seen of the wrath of God

CHAPTER VII

ORATOR AGAINST ORATOR

The gravity, fixed attention, and decorum of these sons of the forest was calculated to make for theon_

The next day all the Indians were gathered around the council grove

Multnomah presided, and every sachem was in his place

There was to be a trial of eloquence,--a tourney of orators, to see which tribe had the best Only one, the most eloquent of each tribe, was to speak; and Multnomah was to decide as victor The mother of Wallulah had introduced the custo the Indians

Cecil was in his place a the chiefs, orn face and abstracted air; Snoquallance and imperious mien; there was Mishlah, with his sullen and brutal features; there, too, wrapped closely in his robe of fur, sat Tohohtiest ure of the; the hush of a superstitious aas upon the mountains, Hood and Adams as the white ue, were becoht fla from the top of Mount Hood and thick black smoke still puffed upward from it, and on Mount Adams rested a heavy cloud of volcanic vapors Were the ed men told how in the old time there had been a terrible outburst of flame and ashes from Mount Hood; a rain of fire and stones had fallen over all the Willareat mountain's wrath