ds,
brawls with street toughs and the police. The effort to educate Raoul
had ended when he beat his Latin teacher so badly the man was in New
York Hospital for a month. It had cost Papa a fortune to persuade the
teacher not to press charges. Of course Raoul would be insulted at the
suggestions that a savage Indian boy might succeed where he had
disgraced himself.

"No, Raoul." Pierre shook his head vigorously. "At the most, I might
want his mother and him to have a small bequest. Not even as much as
will go to Nicole. So little you would never miss it. Surely you would
not let greed for wealth and property come between us."

"I came here today to protect our family honor, and you call me greedy!"
Raoul's broad chest heaved.

"What I propose _is_ honorable!"

"How could you consider it honorable to make Indians part of our family
after what they did to us?"

It hurt Pierre to call those awful memories to mind. Yes, perhaps if he
had been there and suffered as Raoul had, and had seen Helene raped and
murdered, he might hate Indians as his brother did.

Pierre said, "Raoul, when I was with Sun Woman I knew nothing of what
happened to Helene and you. Once the war broke out in 1812 I was in
effect a prisoner and had no word from the white world. The Sauk held
me for three years from the start of the war. And then, when I found
out--why do you think I left Sun Woman and Gray Cloud? And never
returned, only sent messages through the priest, never tried to see
them? It was because after I learned about Helene--about what they did
to you--I, even _I_, Raoul, could not be with Indians anymore. It has
taken all these years before I could face them again."

Elysee said with a frown, "Raoul, you keep mentioning that this woman
and her child whom your brother wishes to help are Indians, as if that
in itself made them intolerable. Now, I could quite agree, if they were
Englishmen--"

Raoul spoke in a low, steady growl. "Being Indians does make them
intolerable. They're animals."

Pierre felt anger growing inside him. He was trying to understand Raoul,
but Raoul's insults were becoming more provocation than he could endure.

"Animals?" said Elysee incredulously. "Come now, Raoul. Surely you do
not believe that. The red people are as human as we are."

Raoul laughed bitterly. "Sure, you'd have to say they're human.
Otherwise Pierre's mating with one of them would be like a half-witted
farmer mounting one of his sheep."