will certainly make us prisoners. Shall we fight
them, my brothers, and then all journey together to the
Happy Hunting Grounds beyond the blood-red sunsets?"

But there was Dorothy to be thought of, and they knew
that Poundmaker, though he might possibly put them to
death, would not practise any of those atrocities ascribed
to Big Bear. As the odds were a hundred to one against
them, and they would all inevitably be shot down, it
would be folly to resist, seeing that there was a chance
of eventually escaping with their lives. Discretion was
always the better part of valour, and in this case it
would be criminal to forget the fact.

They laid down their arms, and Pasmore himself went
forward to meet them on foot, waving a branch over his
head. This, amongst the Indians on the North American
continent, is equivalent to a flag of truce.

In five minutes more they were surrounded, marshalled in
a body, and marched into the presence of Poundmaker
himself. The chief sat on a rise that was clear of snow,
surrounded by his warriors. All the fire-arms the party
had possessed were taken from them. Douglas had slipped
his arm through his daughter's, and, no matter what the
girl may have felt, she certainly betrayed no fear. It
was Child-of-Light who first addressed Poundmaker. He
stood in front of the others, and said--

"Poundmaker, it is not for mercy, but for your protection
that we sue. If you have gone upon the war-path with the
metis against the white people, let not those who are
innocent of wrong suffer for those whose unwise doings
may have stirred you up to the giving of battle after
your own fashion. Thus will it be that the warriors of
the Great White Queen, who will surely swarm over all
this land in numbers as the white moths ere the roses on
the prairie are in bloom, when they hear from our lips
that you have been mindful of us, will be mindful of you.
Douglas and his daughter you know; they have ever been
the friends of the Red man. You remember the evil days
when there was nought to eat in the land, how they shared
all they had with us, and called us brothers and sisters?
Ill would it become Poundmaker and his Stonies to forget
that. As for the others, they but serve their masters as
these your braves serve you, and is that a crime?

"As for myself, Poundmaker, I have not gone on the
war-path, because I believe this man, Louis Riel, to be
one who hearkens to a false Manitou. For him no friendly
knife