omah preoccupied the attention of the council before anything
could be said or done to impair the effect of his challenge. He bade
the other runner, the one from the sea-coast, deliver his message.

It was, in effect, this:--

A large canoe, with great white wings like a bird, had come gliding
over the waters to the coast near the mouth of the Wauna. Whence it
came no one could tell; but its crew were pale of skin like the great
white _shaman_ there in the council, and seemed of his race. Some of
them came ashore in a small canoe to trade with the Indians, but
trouble rose between them and there was a battle. The strangers slew
many Indians with their magic, darting fire at them from long black
tubes. Then they escaped to the great canoe, which spread its wings
and passed away from sight into the sea. Many of the Indians were
killed, but none of the pale-faced intruders. Now the band who had
suffered demanded that the white man of whom they had heard--the white
chief at the council--be put to death to pay the blood-debt.

All eyes turned on Cecil, and he felt that his hour was come. Weak,
exhausted in body and mind, wearied almost to death, a sudden and
awful peril was on him. For a moment his heart sank, his brain grew
dizzy. How _could_ he meet this emergency? All his soul went out to
God with a dumb prayer for help, with an overwhelming sense of
weakness. Then he heard Multnomah speaking to him in cold, hard
tones.

"The white man has heard the words of the runner. What has he to say
why his life should not pay the blood-debt?"

Cecil rose to his feet. With one last effort he put Wallulah, himself,
his mission, into the hands of God; with one last effort he forced
himself to speak.

Men of nervous temperament, like Cecil, can bring out of an exhausted
body an energy, an outburst of final and intense effort, of which
those of stronger physique do not seem capable. But it drains the
remaining vital forces, and the reaction is terrible. Was it this
flaming-up of the almost burned-out embers of life that animated Cecil
now? Or was it the Divine Strength coming to him in answer to prayer?
Be this as it may, when he opened his lips to speak, all the power of
his consecration came back; physical weakness and mental anxiety left
him; he felt that Wallulah was safe in the arms of the Infinite
Compassion; he felt his love for the Indians, his deep yearning to
help them, to bring them to God, rekindling within him; and n