harangues of first one warrior and then another, "that both warriors are
great chiefs, and that both should go together. Teganisoris insists that
only one shall be offered. This last has been almost agreed; but which
one of you 'tis to be has not yet been determined."

Dawn came through the narrow door and open roof holes of the lodge. The
rising of the sun seemed to bring conviction to the Iroquois. All at
once the savage council broke up and scattered into groups, which
hurried to different parts of the village. Presently these reappeared at
the central lodge. There sounded a concerted savage chant. A ragged
column appeared, whose head was faced toward the cataract. There were
those who bore strings of beads and strips of fur, even the prized
treasures of the tufted scalp locks, whose tresses, combed smooth, were
adorned with colored cloth and feathers.

Pierre Noir was silent; yet, as the captives looked, they needed no
advice that the sacrificial procession was now forming.

"They said," began Pierre Noir, at length, with trembling voice, turning
his eyes aside as he spoke, "that it could not be myself, that it must
be one of you, and but one. They are going to cast lots for it. It is
Teganisoris who has proposed that the lots shall be thrown by--" Pierre
Noir faltered, unwilling to go on.

"And by whom?" asked Law, quietly.

"By--by the woman--by madame!"

CHAPTER XIII

THE SACRIFICE

There was sometimes practised among the Iroquois a game which bore a
certain resemblance to the casting of dice, as the latter is known among
civilized peoples. The method of the play was simple. Two oblong
polished bones, of the bigness of a man's finger, were used as the dice.
The ends of these were ground thin and were rudely polished. One of the
dice was stained red, the other left white. The players in the game
marked out a line on the hard ground, and then each in turn cast up the
two dice into the air, throwing them from some receptacle. The game was
determined by the falling of the red bone, he who cast this colored bone
closer to the line upon the ground being declared the winner. The game
was simple, and depended much upon chance. If the red die fell flat upon
its face at a point near to the line, it was apt to lie close to the
spot where it dropped. On the other hand, did it alight upon either end,
it might bound back and fall at some little distance upon one side of
the line.

It was this game which, in