re shoulders where
the fatal blow should be planted.

"Ha savage! What does this mean! Why are you tracking me!" demanded the
captain angrily, but the wily Indian, instead of starting back and
betraying himself by terror, advanced quietly, not even removing his
hand from the hidden knife hilt, and answered smoothly in his own
tongue,--

"The red man's moccason sounds not upon the sand as the white man's
boot. I did but come to ask my lord if he will not rest at all. Midnight
is long past, and the day must bring its labors. Will not The Sword
sheath for a while his intolerable splendor in sleep, while his slave
watches for him?"

"Why, Kamuso, thou 'rt more than eloquent! Pity but thou shouldst be
trained, and brought to London to show off before the King!" laughed
Standish. "But sleep and I have quarreled for to-night. I know not how
it is, but never after a sound night's rest did I feel more fresh and on
the alert. Go thou and sleep if thou 'rt sleepy, but come not creeping
after me again, or I'll send thee packing! I like not such surprises."

"The will of my lord is the will of his slave," meekly replied Kamuso,
and crept back to his former sheltered nook beside the fire. The chill
March night grew on toward morning, the east reddened with an angry
glare, the solemn stars wheeled on their appointed courses, and Mars,
who had held the morning watch, gave way to Sol, bidding him have a care
of his son, whom he had left gazing with sleepless eyes across the
waters to the East.

"Up, men! 'T is morning at last, and surely never was a night so long as
this. Up, and let us break our fast and be off within the hour!"

So cried the captain, and in a moment all his command was afoot and
active. Kamuso, his face black with sullen rage, retreated to the
wigwams to confess his defeat to Wituwamat and Canacum, who listening
said quietly,--

"His totem is too strong for us. The Sword will never fall before the
tomahawk."

"It is because he is so strong that Obtakiest took a knife of the white
man's make and use, and sent it. The powah that charmed the weapons of
The Sword may have charmed this knife also."

And Kamuso drawing the Weymouth knife from his belt regarded it with
disgust for a moment, then thrusting it back into his belt doggedly
declared,--

"But all is not over. Wait, my brothers, wait for the end, and then say
if Kamuso is a fool."

As the pinnace drew out of Manomet Harbor Standish for the first time