this moment for two years, and now that
it had come I was going to turn my back on it. More, I was going to
refuse aid to a man who had succored me, had shown me genuine kindness.
Self-pity is contemptible, but I felt it now.

"I cannot lead you," I said dully. "Gather your troops if you like,
and make the attack without me. I cannot be here. To-morrow I must
start for Michillimackinac. You will give me a canoe and a man?"

The lightning filled the tent and lit our faces, and I saw the chief
start back under the blow of my words. He was shocked out of all his
inherited and acquired phlegm. He did not speak, but he rose and
peered into my eyes and I saw bewilderment go and contempt rise to take
its place. To feel the righteous disdain of an Indian! That is an
unusual experience for a white man.

And still he did not reply. He sat down and pulled his blanket over
him. He was sorting out the evidence against me and giving judgment.
It seemed at least an hour that he sat silent. And when he did speak
he brought no manna.

"You have sold yourself to the Iroquois wolf. You are a child. You
see only what is in front of your nose and forget what may come later.
You are a fox. You hand us over to the wolf, but what do you expect?
Has a wolf gratitude? No, but he has hunger. Fox meat is poor and
stringy, but the wolf has a large stomach. Let the fox beware."

I pulled myself to my feet, though my shoulder cried to me for mercy.
I jerked the chief's blanket aside.

"Outchipouac, I have listened. You have used an old trick. When a man
wishes to be rid of a dog he cries that it is mad; then he can kill it,
and no one will call him to account. So you. If you wish to break the
covenant between us, now is your time. You can call me a fox, you can
say that I have sold my honor to the Iroquois wolf. No one will check
you, for I am naked and ill, and you are powerful. But you will have
lied. This is my answer. I have called you 'brother;' I have kept the
bond unbroken. If there is a fox here it is the man who calls me one."

I waited, and my mind was heavy. If the chief called me "brother" in
turn, I was ready to embrace him as of my kin. For he was full of
vigor of mind and honesty, and I respected him. He had been kind to
me. Would he trust me against the evidence,--the evidence of his ears
and of my reluctant tongue?

He temporized. "The Frenchman has a tongue like a bobolink,--pleasant
to hear