hat we let you go only to tell the tale. Tell them,
too, that Snoqualmie knows his sister died by their hand last winter,
and that for every hair upon her head he will burn a Bannock warrior
at the stake. Go, and be quick, lest my war-party overtake you on the
trail."

The Bannock left without a word, taking the trail across the prairie
toward the land of his tribe.

"The gift was given, but there was that given with it that made it
bitter. And now may I bury this dead body?"

"It is only a Bannock; who cares what is done with it?" replied
Snoqualmie. "But remember, my debt is paid. Ask of me no more gifts,"
and the chief turned abruptly away.

"Who will help me bury this man?" asked Cecil. No one replied; and he
went alone and cut the thongs that bound the body to the stake. But as
he stooped to raise it, a tall fine-looking man, a renegade from the
Shoshones, who had taken no part in the torture, came forward to help
him. Together they bore the corpse away from the camp to the hillside;
together they hollowed out a shallow grave and stretched the body in
it, covering it with earth and heaping stones on top, that the cayote
might not disturb the last sleep of the dead.

When they returned to the camp, they found a war-party already in the
saddle, with Snoqualmie at their head, ready to take the Bannock
trail. But before they left the camp, a runner entered it with a
summons from Multnomah calling them to the great council of the tribes
on Wappatto Island, for which they must start on the morrow.

-----

[3] See Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. i., p. 270.

[4] See Ross Cox's "Adventures on the Columbia River" for a
description of torture among the Columbia tribes.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE WAY TO THE COUNCIL.

They arrived at the village of Wishram.

IRVING: _Astoria_.

The camp was all astir at dawn, for sunset must see them far on the
way. They must first cross the prairies to the northward till they
struck the Columbia, then take the great trail leading down it to the
Willamette valley. It was a two days' journey at the least.

Squaws were preparing a hurried meal; lodge-poles were being taken
down and the mats that covered them rolled up and strapped on the
backs of horses; Indians, yelling and vociferating, were driving up
bands of horses from which pack and riding ponies were to be selected;
unbroken animals were rearing and plunging