him. It seemed as if he could not go on, as if he
must go back. He shook like a leaf with the mighty conflict.

"My God!" he cried out, throwing up his arms with a despairing
gesture, "must I give up everything, everything?"

He felt his resolution giving way; his gray eyes were dark and dilated
with excitement and pain; his long fingers twitched and quivered;
before he knew what he was doing, he was walking back toward the
settlement.

That brought him to himself; that re-awakened the latent energy and
decision of his character.

"What! shall I turn back from the very threshold of my work? God
forgive me--never!"

His delicate frame grew strong and hardy under the power of his
indomitable spirit. Again his dauntless enthusiasm came back; again he
was the Apostle to the Indians.

One long last look, and he disappeared in the shadows of the wood,
passing forever from the ken of the white man; for only vague rumors
floated back to the colonies from those mysterious wilds into which he
had plunged. The strange and wondrous tale of his after-life New
England never knew.

BOOK II.

_THE OPENING OF THE DRAMA._

CHAPTER I.

SHALL THE GREAT COUNCIL BE HELD?

The comet burns the wings of night,
And dazzles elements and spheres;
Then dies in beauty and a blaze of light
Blown far through other years.

JOAQUIN MILLER.

Two hundred years ago--as near as we can estimate the time from the
dim and shadowy legends that have come down to us--the confederacy of
the Wauna or Columbia was one of the most powerful the New World has
ever seen. It was apparently not inferior to that of the Six Nations,
or to the more transitory leagues with which Tecumseh or Pontiac
stayed for a moment the onward march of the white man. It was a union
of the Indian tribes of Oregon and Washington, with the Willamettes at
the head, against their great hereditary enemies, the Nootkas, the
Shoshones, and the Spokanes.

Sonorous and picturesque was the language of the old Oregon Indians in
telling the first white traders the story of the great alliance.

"Once, long before my father's time and before his father's time, all
the tribes were as one tribe and the Willamettes were _tyee_ [chief].
The Willamettes were strong and none could stand against them. The
heart of the Willamette was battle and his hand was blood. When he
lift