Knife-in-the-Wind knew but one word, _cache_, which all
the North knows.

But presently William Rufus Holly recovered himself, and in stumbling
Chinook made himself understood. Opening a bale, he brought out beads and
tobacco and some bright red flannel, and two hundred Indians sat round him
and grunted "How!" and received his gifts with little comment. Then the
pipe of peace went round, and Oshondonto smoked it becomingly.

But he saw that the Indians despised him for his youth, his fatness, his
yellow hair as soft as a girl's, his cherub face, browned though it was by
the sun and weather.

As he handed the pipe to Knife-in-the-Wind, an Indian called Silver
Tassel, with a cruel face, said, grimly:

"Why does Oshondonto travel to us?"

William Rufus Holly's eyes steadied on those of the Indian as he replied
in Chinook: "To teach the way to Manitou the Mighty, to tell the
Athabascas of the Great Chief who died to save the world."

"The story is told in many ways; which is right? There was the factor,
Word of Thunder. There is the song they sing at Edmonton--I have heard."

"The Great Chief is the same Chief," answered the missionary. "If you tell
of Fort O'Call, and Knife-in-the-Wind tells of Fort O'Call, he and you
will speak different words, and one will put in one thing and one will
leave out another; men's tongues are different. But Fort O'Call is the
same, and the Great Chief is the same."

"It was a long time ago," said Knife-in-the-Wind, sourly, "many thousand
moon, as the pebbles in the river, the years."

"It is the same world, and it is the same Chief, and it was to save us,"
answered William Rufus Holly, smiling, yet with a fluttering heart, for
the first test of his life had come.

In anger Knife-in-the-Wind thrust an arrow into the ground and said:

"How can the white man who died thousands of moons ago in a far country
save the red man of to-day?"

"A strong man should bear so weak a tale," broke in Silver Tassel,
ruthlessly. "Are we children, that the Great Chief sends a child as
messenger?"

For a moment Billy Rufus did not know how to reply, and in the pause
Knife-in-the-Wind broke in two pieces the arrow he had thrust in the
ground in token of displeasure.

Suddenly, as Oshondonto was about to speak, Silver Tassel sprang to his
feet, seized in his arms a lad of twelve who was standing near, and,
running to the bank, dropped him into the swift current.

"If Oshondonto be not a child, le