Henry heard a distant wailing note
from the west. Some one in the camp replied with a cry in kind, and then
a silence fell upon them all. The chiefs stood erect, looking toward the
west. Henry knew that he whom they expected was at hand.

The cry was repeated, but much nearer, and a warrior leaped into the
opening, in the full blaze of the firelight. He was entirely naked save
for a breech cloth and moccasins, and he was a wild and savage figure.
He stood for a moment or two, then faced the chiefs, and, bowing before
them, spoke a few words in the Wyandot tongue-Henry knew already by his
paint that he was a Wyandot.

The chiefs inclined their heads gravely, and the herald, turning, leaped
back into the forest. In two or three minutes six men, including the
herald, emerged from the woods, and Henry moved a little when he saw the
first of the six, all of whom were Wyandots. It was Timmendiquas, head
chief of the Wyandots, and Henry had never seen him more splendid in
manner and bearing than he was as he thus met the representatives of the
famous Six Nations. Small though the Wyandot tribe might be, mighty was
its valor and fame, and White Lightning met the great Iroquois only as
an equal, in his heart a superior.

It was an extraordinary thing, but Henry, at this very moment, burrowing
in the earth that he might not lose his life at the hands of either, was
an ardent partisan of Timmendiquas. It was the young Wyandot chief
whom he wished to be first, to make the greatest impression, and he was
pleased when he heard the low hum of admiration go round the circle of
two hundred savage warriors. It was seldom, indeed, perhaps never, that
the Iroquois had looked upon such a man as Timmendiquas.

Timmendiquas and his companions advanced slowly toward the chiefs, and
the Wyandot overtopped all the Iroquois. Henry could tell by the manner
of the chiefs that the reputation of the famous White Lightning had
preceded him, and that they had already found fact equal to report.

The chiefs, Timmendiquas among them, sat down on logs before the fire,
and all the warriors withdrew to a respectful distance, where they stood
and watched in silence. The oldest chief took his long pipe, beautifully
carved and shaped like a trumpet, and filled it with tobacco which he
lighted with a coal from the fire. Then he took two or three whiffs and
passed the pipe to Timmendiquas, who did the same. Every chief smoked
the pipe, and then they sat stil