nd? Speak! chiefs must answer for
their people."

There was sullen silence for a little time; then one of them muttered
that it was the young men; their blood was hot, they were rash, and
the chiefs could not control them.

"Can you not control your young men? Then you are not fit to be
chiefs, and are chiefs no longer." He gave a signal to certain of the
Willamettes who had come up behind the rebellious leaders, as they
stood confused and hesitating in the council. They were seized and
their hands bound ere they could defend themselves; indeed, they made
no effort to do so, but submitted doggedly.

"Take them down the Wauna in the sea-canoes and sell them as slaves to
the Nootkas who hunt seal along the coast. Their people shall see
their faces no more. Slaves in the ice-land of the North shall they
live and die."

The swarthy cheeks of the captives grew ashen, and a shudder went
through that trapped and surrounded mob of malcontents. Indian slavery
was always terrible; but to be slaves to the brutal Indians of the
north, starved, beaten, mutilated, chilled, and benumbed in a land of
perpetual frost; to perish at last in the bleak snow and winter of
almost arctic coasts,--that was a fate worse than the torture-stake.

Dreadful as it was, not a chief asked for mercy. Silently they went
with their captors out of the grove and down the bank to the river's
edge. A large sea-canoe, manned by Chinook paddlers, was floating at
the beach. They quickly embarked, the paddles dipped, the canoe glided
out into the current and down the stream. In a few moments the
cottonwood along the river's edge hid it from sight, and the rebels
were forever beyond the hope of rescue.

Swift and merciless had the vengeance of Multnomah fallen, and the
insurrection had been crushed at a blow. It had taken but a moment,
and it had all passed under the eyes of the malcontents, who were
still surrounded by the loyal warriors.

When the canoe had disappeared and the gaze of that startled and awed
multitude came back to Multnomah, he made a gesture of dismissal. The
lines drew aside and the rebels were free.

While they were still bewildered and uncertain what to do, Multnomah
instantly and with consummate address called the attention of the
council to other things, thereby apparently assuming that the trouble
was ended and giving the malcontents to understand that no further
punishment was intended. Sullenly, reluctantly, they seemed to acce