n they came
again to their camp-fires. So they let him live, and he was one of them.
But the chief man, because he was stubborn and scorned them, and had
killed the son of their king in the fight, they made a slave, and
carried him north a captive, till they came to this lake--the Lake of
the Great Slave.

"In all ways they tried him, but he would not yield, neither to wear
their dress nor to worship their gods. He was robbed of his clothes, of
his gold-handled dagger, his belt of silk and silver, his carbine with
rich chasing, and all, and he was among them almost naked,--it was
summer, as I said, yet defying them. He was taller by a head than any of
them, and his white skin rippled in the sun like soft steel."

Tybalt was inclined to ask Pierre how he knew all this, but he held his
peace. Pierre, as if divining his thoughts, continued:

"You ask how I know these things. Very good: there are the legends, and
there were the papers of the Company. The Indians tried every way, but
it was no use; he would have nothing to say to them. At last they came
to this lake. Now something great occurred. The woman who had been the
wife of the king's dead son, her heart went out in love of the Great
Slave; but he never looked at her. One day there were great sports, for
it was the feast of the Red Star. The young men did feats of strength,
here on this ground where we sit. The king's wife called out for the
Great Slave to measure strength with them all. He would not stir. The
king commanded him; still he would not, but stood among them silent and
looking far away over their heads. At last, two young men of good height
and bone threw arrows at his bare breast. The blood came in spots. Then
he gave a cry through his beard, and was on them like a lion. He caught
them, one in each arm, swung them from the ground, and brought their
heads together with a crash, breaking their skulls, and dropped them at
his feet. Catching up a long spear, he waited for the rest. But they did
not come, for, with a loud voice, the king told them to fall back, and
went and felt the bodies of the men. One of them was dead; the other was
his second son--he would live.

"'It is a great deed,' said the king, 'for these were no children, but
strong men.'

"Then again he offered the Great Slave women to marry, and fifty tents
of deerskin for the making of a village. But the Great Slave said no,
and asked to be sent back to Fort O'Glory.

"The king refused. B