ing before his lodge, with the wide marshes and
the river dark at our feet. Singing birds in the forest have been many;
evil tales have they told; Opechancanough has stopped his ears against
their false singing. My friends are his friends, my brother is his
brother, my word is his word: witness the armlet that hath no like.
Opechancanough is at hand; he comes through the forest with his two
hundred warriors. Will you, when you lie at his feet, have him ask you,
'Where is the friend of my friend, of my war chief?'"

There came a long, deep breath from the Indians, then a silence in which
they fell back, slowly and sullenly--whipped hounds but with the will to
break that leash of fear.

"Hark!" said Nantaquas, smiling. "I hear Opechancanough and his warriors
coming over the leaves."

The noise of many footsteps was indeed audible, coming toward the hollow
from the woods beyond. With a burst of cries, the priests and the
conjurer whirled away to bear the welcome of Okee to the royal
worshipper, and at their heels went the chief men of the Pamunkeys. The
werowance of the Paspaheghs was one that sailed with the wind; he
listened to the deepening sound and glanced at the son of Powhatan where
he stood, calm and confident, then smoothed his own countenance and made
a most pacific speech, in which all the blame of the late proceedings
was laid upon the singing birds. When he had done speaking, the young
men tore the stakes from the earth and threw them into a thicket, while
the women plucked apart the newly kindled fire and flung the brands into
a little nearby stream, where they went out in a cloud of hissing steam.

I turned to the Indian who had wrought this miracle. "Art sure it is not
a dream, Nantaquas? I think that Opechancanough would not lift a finger
to save me from all the deaths the tribes could invent."

"Opechancanough is very wise," he answered quietly. "He says that now
the English will believe in his love indeed when they see that he holds
dear even one who might be called his enemy, who hath spoken against him
at the Englishmen's council fire. He says that for five suns Captain
Percy shall feast with him, and then shall go back free to Jamestown. He
thinks that then Captain Percy will not speak against him any more,
calling his love to the white men only words with no good deeds
behind."

He spoke simply, out of the nobility of his nature, believing his own
speech. I that was older, and had more knowledg