ve the
stones. Will was placed in a skin hammock under the layers and suspended
about two feet above the hot stones. Water was then poured on these,
until a dense steam arose. When Inmutanka thought that Will had stood it
as long as he could, he withdrew him from the hot steam bath, although
medicine men sometimes left their patients in too long, allowing them to
be scalded to death.

In Will's case it was cure, not kill. The fever quickly disappeared from
his system and though it left him very weak he recovered so rapidly that
in a few days he was as strong as ever, in fact, stronger, because all
the impurities had been steamed out of his system, and the new blood
generated was better than the old. He learned, too, from Inmutanka that
he had won respect in the village by his courage and tenacity, and that
many were in favor of lightening his labors, although the Fox was as
stern as ever.

Will was still compelled to realize that he was a slave; that he, a
white lad, the heir of untold centuries of civilization and culture, was
the slave of a people who, despite all their courage and other virtues,
were savages. They stood where, in many respects, his ancestors had
stood ten or twenty thousand years ago. Again and again, the thought was
so bitter that he felt like making a run for freedom and ending it all
on the Indian spear. But the thought would change, and with it came the
hope that some day or other the moment of escape would appear, and there
was a lurking feeling, too, that his present life was not wholly
unpleasant, or, at least, there were compensations.

An increased strength came with the rapid recovery from his illness.
Beyond any question he had grown in both height and breadth since he had
been in the mountains, and his muscles were as hard as iron. Not one of
the Indian youths could exert as much direct strength as he, or endure
as much.

His patience, which was now largely the result of calculation and will,
began to have its visible effect upon the people. There is nothing that
an Indian admires more than stoicism. The fortitude that can endure pain
without a groan is to him the highest of attributes. Will had never
complained, no matter how great his hardships or labors, and gradually
they began to look upon him as one of their own. His face was tanned
heavily by continuous exposure to all kinds of weather, his original
garments were worn out, and he was now clad wholly in deerskins. A
casual obse