sides, and everywhere a growing admiration. A tribe of prowess
themselves, the Nakonikirhirinons knew a clever feat when they saw it.

For the third time the tall woman in the beaded garment took the hatchet
and squared her shoulders.

"What does it mean?" McElroy was thinking wildly; "why does she not save
him while there is time?" And, even as the words went through his brain,
something snapped therein and he was conscious of the circle of faces in
the forest edge waving in grotesque undulations, of the arm of Maren as
it straightened forward, of the flash of the hatchet as it flew for the
painted post, and then of great darkness sewn with a thousand stars.

As Maren had raised her hand for the throw, from somewhere out of the
darkness behind the fire a stone death-maul had hurtled, aimed at her
wrist, but he who threw was sorry of sight as a drunken man, for it
struck the head of McElroy instead and he sagged down against the
moosehide thongs, even as the hatchet once more clicked snugly in its
former cleft.

Then from all the concourse there went up a shout, half in anger and
half in wild applause.

"Nik-o-men-wa!" they cried; "the Thrower of the Seven Tribes! But the
White Doe plays with the decree of Gitche Manitou! Bring the spear!
Fetch forth the spears, oh, Men of Wisdom!"

But in the midst of the excitement a figure walked slowly forth in the
light and held up a hand for silence.

It was Edmonton Ridgar.

Reluctantly they obeyed, sullenly, as if bound by a bond against their
will.

In the sudden hush he spoke.

"What do ye here, my brothers?" he asked, and waited.

There was no reply from the mass before him.

"Wherefore is the spirit of my Father vexed that it disturbs my watch
inside the death-lodge?"

The small rustling of the excited crowd ceased in every quarter.

They stilled themselves in a peculiar manner.

"Oh, ye sachems and Men of Wisdom," he said, turning to the headmen
gathered together, "come ye to the tepee of Negansahima and behold what
ye have done!"

Slowly, as he had come, the chief trader of De Seviere turned about
and passed out of the light. One by one, in utter silence, their faces
changed in a moment into masks of uneasiness, the sachems and medicine
men rose and followed. In the wavering shadows thrown by the central
fire the big tepee stood in awesome majesty. Ridgar raised the flap and
entered, dropping it as the savages filed in to the number of all it
would ho