conferred for awhile with Mahtsonza in the strange, clicking tongue
of the Kakisas. Gaviller soon became impatient.

"Tell us as he goes along," he said. "Never mind waiting for the end of
the story."

"They can't tell you anything directly," said Strange deprecatingly;
"there's nothing to do but let them tell a story in their own way. He's
telling me now that Etzooah, a man with much hair, who hunts down the
Swan River near the beginning of the swift water, came up to the village
at the end of the horse-track on snowshoes and dragging a little sled.
Etzooah had the letter for Gaviller, but he was tired out, so he handed
it to Mahtsonza, who had dogs, to bring it the rest of the way, and gave
Mahtsonza a mink-skin for his trouble."

"Never mind all that," said Gaviller impatiently. "What about the white
man?"

Strange conferred again with Mahtsonza, while Gaviller bit his nails.

"Mahtsonza says," he reported, "that Imbrie is a great White Medicine
Man who has done honour to the Kakisa people by coming among them to
heal the sick and do good. Mahtsonza says he has not seen Imbrie
himself, because when he came among the Indians last fall Mahtsonza was
off hunting on the upper Swan, but all the people talk about him and
what strong medicine he makes."

"Conjure tricks!" muttered Doc Giddings.

"Where does he live?" demanded Gaviller.

Strange asked the question and reported the answer. "He has built
himself a shack beside the Great Falls of the Swan River. Mahtsonza says
that the people know his medicine is strong because he is not afraid to
live with the voice of the Great Falls."

Stonor asked the next question. "What sort of man is he?"

Strange, after putting the question, said: "Mahtsonza says he's very
good-looking, or, as he puts it, a pretty man. He says he looks young,
but he may be as old as the world, because with such strong medicine he
could make himself look like anything he wanted. He says that the White
Medicine Man talks much with dried words in covers--I suppose he means
books."

"Ask him what proof he has given them that his medicine is strong,"
suggested Stonor.

Strange translated Mahtsonza's answer as follows: "Last year when the
bush berries were ripe (that's August) all the Indians down the river
got sick. Water came out of their eyes and nose; their skin got as red
as sumach and burned like fire."

"Measles," said Gaviller. "The Beavers had it, too. They take it hard."

Strange c