but he put little trust in the white youth.
Already Big Fox had sowed in his mind the seeds of unbelief in the words
of Braxton Wyatt.

"Scarcely a moon ago the Shawnees, as we all know, wished to go on the
great war trail at once," said Yellow Panther, "but now three come, who
say they are from them, bearing peace belts. Moreover, here is another who
says that the Shawnees would send war belts. What shall the Miamis think?"

There was another murmur, and then silence. The surcharged air was heavy
in the great lodge. But Big Fox merely shrugged his shoulders slightly,
and answered in tones of lofty indifference:

"Big Fox, Brown Bear, and The Bat were sent by the old chiefs of the
Shawnees to deliver peace belts to the chiefs of the Miamis, and they have
delivered them."

Brown Bear and The Bat nodded, but said nothing. Yellow Panther looked at
Braxton Wyatt, who was shaken by varying emotions. As he truly said, he
had long been in the Shawnee villages, but he had never seen or heard of
the three warriors who now sat calmly before him--Big Fox, Brown Bear,
and The Bat. Yet he could not say that no such men existed, because small
parties had roved far and long on the hunt or the war trail. He gazed at
them before answering. He, too, was struck by the splendid figure and pose
of Big Fox, and he was impressed, moreover, by a sense of something
familiar, though he could not name it. It haunted him and troubled him,
but remained a mystery. He collected his shrewd wits and said:

"As I told you, the warriors who bring the peace belts are strangers to
me. Yet the Shawnees, when I left the head village, but a few days ago,
wished war at once against the white settlements, and the Shawnees do not
change their minds quickly."

"Is the word of a renegade, of one who would slay his own people, to be
weighed against that of a warrior?"

Big Fox spoke with lofty contempt, not gazing at Braxton Wyatt, but
straight into the eyes of Gray Beaver. The old chief felt the power of
that look, and wavered under it.

"It is true," he said, "that the Shawnees, a moon ago, were for war; but
Big Fox, Brown Bear, and The Bat have come, bearing peace belts from them,
and what our eyes see must be true."

There was a murmur again, but it was very faint now. The authority of
Gray Beaver, in his time a mighty warrior, and now wise with years and
experience, was great, and the under chiefs were impressed--all but Yellow
Panther, whose eyes f