ou, women. I have no brother, no
cousin, no son, no grandson, and the charm must not go to a lesser
warrior than I. None of our tribe, nor of any tribe on the coast, ever
conquered me. The charm must go to one as unconquerable as I have
been. When I am dead send it across the great salt chuck, to the
victorious 'Frenchman'; they call him Napoleon Bonaparte." They were
his last words.

The older women wished to bury the charm with him, but the younger
women, inspired with the spirit of their generation, were determined to
send it over seas. "In the grave it will be dead," they argued. "Let
it still live on. Let it help some other fighter to greatness and
victory."

As if to confirm their decision, the next day a small sealing vessel
anchored in the Inlet. All the men aboard spoke Russian, save two
thin, dark, agile sailors, who kept aloof from the crew and conversed
in another language. These two came ashore with part of the crew and
talked in French with a wandering Hudson's Bay trapper, who often
lodged with the Squamish people. Thus the women, who yet mourned over
their dead warrior, knew these two strangers to be from the land where
the great "Frenchman" was fighting against the world.

Here I interrupted the chief. "How came the Frenchmen in a Russian
sealer?" I asked.

"Captives," he replied. "Almost slaves, and hated by their captors, as
the majority always hate the few. So the women drew those two
Frenchmen apart from the rest and told them the story of the bone of
the sea-serpent, urging them to carry it back to their own country and
give it to the great 'Frenchman' who was as courageous and as brave as
their dead leader.

"The Frenchmen hesitated; the talisman might affect them, they said;
might jangle their own brains, so that on their return to Russia they
would not have the sagacity to plan an escape to their own country;
might disjoint their bodies, so that their feet and hands would be
useless, and they would become as weak as children. But the women
assured them that the charm only worked its magical powers over a man's
enemies, that the ancient medicine men had 'bewitched' it with this
quality. So the Frenchmen took it and promised that if it were in the
power of man they would convey it to 'the Emperor.'

"As the crew boarded the sealer, the women watching from the shore
observed strange contortions seize many of the men; some fell on the
deck; some crouched, shaking as with pals