, shrieking loudly, took to
their heels. Smith, before another arrow left its bow, whipped out his
pistol and pointed it at the advancing crowd. Then John Russell, hearing
the commotion, rushed from the lodge. Pressing the snaphance of his
musket, he fired into the oncoming savages, but failed to hit one.

Nevertheless, the Indians, seeing that the Englishmen were still armed,
turned and fled, disappearing into the forest. Pocahontas, trembling
with anger, ran through the trees to find her father to ask him what was
the meaning of this treacherous treatment of his guests.

After she had run some little distance she caught sight of Powhatan
approaching and, hiding behind a rock, she waited to see whither he was
bound. To her amazement, she saw that he was turning to the strangers'
lodge and that behind him followed slaves bearing great baskets of food
and seed-corn. What could he mean, she wondered, by first trying to kill
and then to feast the white men? She followed, herself unseen, while
Powhatan approached Smith without the slightest hesitation.

"It rejoiceth my heart, my son," she heard him call out when he was
within one hundred feet of where Smith was standing, watching him with
puzzled eyes, "to know that thou art unharmed. While I was gone to see
that provisions were provided for thee, even according to my word, my
young men who were crazed with religious zeal and fasting they have
undergone in preparation for a great ceremonial planned by our priests,
knew not what they were doing. See, my son, think no evil of us; would
we at one moment seek to harm and to help thee? Behold the supplies I,
thy father, have here for thee."

And Smith, though he doubted somewhat, did not feel certain that
Powhatan was not speaking the truth. But Pocahontas, still in hiding,
knew well that no man in Werowocomoco would have dared shoot at the
white men except by direct order of their werowance.

Perhaps, however, all was now well; perhaps her father had at least
realized that the Englishmen were not to be caught napping. She looked
on while Powhatan and Smith superintended the placing of the great piles
of stores in the boat and the refilling of the baskets with the goods
with which the Englishmen paid for them.

Then, their work over, the Indians began to deck themselves out in the
beads and cloths. While they were thus occupied a man came running and
dropped down exhausted before Powhatan, able to gasp out a couple of
wor