it had been the house of the
governor of the village who might even now be among the victims of the
broken trust.

On the altar was a crucifix in gold on ebony, and the eyes of the boy
were not kindly as he regarded it.

"They lie when they say you are a god of peace like our god
Po-se-yemo," he said. "They lie when they say you are the god of the
red man--you are the white god of the white people--and you will let
the red men hold not anything that your white children want!"

He heard himself speak the words aloud there alone where the new altar
was--he seemed to hear himself saying it over and over as if by the
sound of his own voice he could kill the sound of the tortured red men
in the court.

A blanketed figure ran in at the open door, halted at the sound of
Tahn-te's voice--and then flung himself forward. It was Ka-yemo and
his teeth were chattering at the thought of the inferno without.

"It may be they will not look for us here," he said as he saw who it
was in the chapel--"Perhaps--if one keeps near--to their strong god:
and you are close also--and--"

"I stay close because it is my work,"--said Tahn-te. "Some of the men
tied to the stakes out there bent before their strong god and said
prayers there.--Did it save them?"

"They will kill us--we will never see our people--they will kill us!"
muttered Ka-yemo shaken with fear.

"I do not think they want to kill us:--they still need us for many
things. We are only boys, we have not wives that we refuse to give to
the white men--if we had it might be different, who knows?"

"Is that the cause?"

"The white men will give a different one--but that is the cause!
The men of this valley think it is enough if they give their
houses, and their corn, and their woven blankets to their fine white
brothers:--the red men are foolish men,--so they burn at the stake
out there!"

Ka-yemo stared at him, and crouched in his blanket.

"You say strange things," he muttered. "I think when they get crazy
with the spirit to kill that they will kill us all. I do not stay to
be killed--I go!"

Tahn-te staring at the emblems of holiness on the altar scarcely heard
him.

"I go, Tahn-te,--I go if I have to swim the river with the ice.--Do
you stay here to be killed?"

"I am here to learn many things--I learn but little yet, I cannot
go."

"But--if you die?"

"I think it is not yet that I die," said Tahn-te--"There is much to
do."

"And--if I live to see--our people