se an ululating cry
that seemed to pierce the very clouds that hung over the camp. Wolf Paw,
Iron Knife, Little Crow, Three Horses and a dozen other Sauk and Fox
braves leaped up, waving rifles, tomahawks, bows and arrows, scalping
knives, screaming their battle cries. Owl Carver beat furiously on a
drum painted with a picture of the Hawk spirit.

The Winnebago Prophet lunged to his feet and joined the outcry, his
gestures so wild and his shouts so loud that he almost seemed to be
competing with Black Hawk.

Redbird spoke softly, close by White Bear's ear. "They are drunk on
war."

The outcry died down. Black Hawk crossed his arms over his chest to show
that he had finished speaking. The Winnebago Prophet remained standing
and raised his arms.

"I have come to promise Black Hawk and his braves that if he goes to
Saukenuk and the long knives attack him, the warriors of Prophet's Town
will help them to fight back."

The chiefs and braves seated around the fire greeted this with much
stamping and clapping. White Bear glanced at He Who Moves Alertly, who
sat a quarter of the way around the circle from him. The face under the
buffalo headdress was as still as if carved from wood.

Flying Cloud said, "I have sent messages to all the tribes that live
near the Great River--Winnebago, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw,
Chippewa. When Black Hawk raises the tomahawk, they will raise the
tomahawk too. And I have had a message from our allies of old, the
British in Canada, who say the Americans have done us a great wrong, and
we should not give up any more land to them. If American long knives
attack us, the British long knives will come to our aid. With ships,
with big guns, with rifles, powder and shot and food for us, with
hundreds of red-coat soldiers. Now is the best of times to tell the long
knives they cannot push us any further. Let all who are truly men take
to the trail of war with Black Hawk!"

White Bear sensed deadly falsehood in the words of the Winnebago
Prophet. When White Bear was in New York City he had heard many times
that the enmity between Americans and British was a thing of the past.
White Bear did not believe that the British up there in Canada had any
intention of getting into a war between whites and Indians in Illinois.
But how could he prove that what Flying Cloud said was untrue?

With a cry of "Ei! Ei!" Wolf Paw shook his rifle over his head. He
snapped it to his shoulder and fired it with a d