light gleamed on his
shaven head and glittered on the beads around the rims of his ears. The
bowl of the pipe he smoked was part of a steel tomahawk blade; the stem
of the pipe was the tomahawk handle. He looked up, and his eyes widened
when White Bear stepped into the firelight.

"White Bear!" came Black Hawk's gravelly voice. "Are you truly alive or
do you come back from the Trail of Souls?"

White Bear felt an immense warmth as the firelight showed him Black
Hawk's teeth flashing in one of his rare smiles.

"I am alive," said White Bear.

"I am happy! I am surprised!" Black Hawk cried, waving his pipe. "I
thought all three of you were dead."

Sudden elation dizzied White Bear, and the flesh of his back prickled as
he realized what it meant to see Black Hawk sitting quietly smoking his
pipe in the center of Raoul's camp. Victory! The long knives routed. How
had it happened? Black Hawk might have made a terrible mistake leading
the Sauk across the Great River, but at that moment White Bear loved
him.

Owl Carver stepped out of the shadows carrying a bundle of goods he had
been gathering from the tents of the long knives. He dropped his bundle
to throw his arms around White Bear.

"My son is restored to me."

White Bear sat down at the fire.

"How did you escape?" Black Hawk asked.

White Bear explained how he had played dead when Eli Greenglove claimed
to have hit him. He said nothing about meeting Otto Wegner. He felt good
about having spared Wegner's life, but he was not sure Black Hawk would
understand. In fact, White Bear was not sure he himself understood.

Owl Carver made White Bear hold his head close to the firelight while he
examined the wound, muttering.

"Truly, the things the long knives do pass all understanding," he said.
"It was dark. You were in grass. Maybe he missed."

"He missed on purpose. He has great fame as a marksman; he sees very
well. He came and stood over me, and must have known I was alive."

Owl Carver searched through his bundle of loot and found a Frenchman's
kerchief and tied it around White Bear's head to protect the wounded
ear.

Chills of exultation rippled up White Bear's spine as he looked around
and saw Black Hawk's braves plundering the very camp where Raoul's men
had swarmed and had killed his two companions at sunset.

"Earthmaker has given us a mighty victory," he said.

"We never expected it," said Owl Carver. "We were camped on the Rock
River north of h