orable and the distance short, Standish made no open objection to
the company of the spy, but busied himself with freshly charging his
weapons, and curiously examining every inch of Gideon's shining blade.

A little after noon the shallop made the harbor of Sandwich, or as the
Pilgrims called it Manomet, and Standish at once went ashore, eager to
see if Canacum shared in the wide-spread disaffection of the Indians.
But ten minutes in the sachem's wigwam convinced the wary observer that
something was wrong, for the old friendliness of manner had given place
to restraint and formality; and although Canacum was very ready to
deliver the corn, and professed great pleasure at the captain's visit,
his voice and manner were both cold and false, and such of his braves as
came into the wigwam showed a very different face from what Standish had
hitherto encountered.

Suddenly a sound was heard without, and as the captain sprang to his
feet and laid his hand upon Gideon's hilt, the door-mat was thrust
aside, and two Indians recognized by their paint as Neponsets entered
the cabin. Canacum received them with effusive cordiality, and presented
the principal one to Standish as Wituwamat a pniese of the Neponsets.

Standish received the careless salutation of the new-comer in silent
gravity, and stepping to the door summoned Howland and Alden to his
side, first however sending a message to the boat-keepers to be well on
guard against a surprise.

Returning into the hut with his two friends, the captain found Wituwamat
upon his feet beginning an impassioned harangue to Canacum, who listened
uneasily. Standish was already an excellent Indian scholar, and could
converse in several dialects with great ease; but so soon as he appeared
Wituwamat fell into a style so figurative and blind, and took pains to
use such unusual and obsolete expressions, that Canacum himself could
hardly understand him, and Standish was soon left hopelessly in the
background. At a later day, however, one of the warriors then present
repeated to the captain the amount of the Neponset's message, which was
that Obtakiest, sachem of the Neponsets, had entered into a solemn
compact with Canonicus, sachem of the Narragansetts, to cut off the
Weymouth colonists, root and branch; but that as the Plymouth men would
assuredly revenge their brethren, it was necessary that they should
perish as well, and that while the two chiefs mentioned advanced upon
the settlement from