ut to draw it out. He gritted his teeth in anger.

Wolf Paw sighed. White Bear looked at his face and saw that only the
whites of his eyes were showing under the half-closed lids.
Mercifully--for both of them--he had fainted.

White Bear looked again at the object he was trying to pull out of Wolf
Paw's shoulder. He could just see a corrugated edge covered with blood.
With a bit of cloth he wiped the blood away and saw a bright silver
gleam.

He gave a little gasp of amazement.

_A silver coin. The last thing anyone would expect to find loaded into a
cannon. Or embedded in a man's body. Those people at Victor must have
been desperate._

That gave White Bear an inspiration. No one else was close enough to see
what he had seen in the wound. He remembered what Owl Carver had said
about showing the people magical powers.

He waited until he saw Wolf Paw's eyelids flutter and then said, "Wolf
Paw, because you have allowed the pale eyes woman to live, the spirits
will reward you."

Wolf Paw, his lips compressed, frowned at him.

"The spirits will allow me to change the lead ball the pale eyes shot
into you to one of their silver coins." He spoke loudly so that the
people watching could all hear him.

Wolf Paw stared, as White Bear passed his medicine stick three times in
a sunwise circle over the bleeding shoulder.

Once again White Bear pushed the tongs into the wound. He pushed the
ends in past the coin, to get a good purchase on it. Wolf Paw groaned.
White Bear pulled.

Joy sprang up in him as he felt the silver coin coming free. He had it
this time. The spirits might not have changed lead to silver, but they
had made him skillful. The tongs came out holding an eight-real silver
piece dripping with blood. White Bear held it up for all to see.

Wolf Paw's eyes grew round. The people cried out in amazement. Even Owl
Carver looked astonished.

Delighted with the effect, White Bear wiped the blood from the Spanish
dollar carefully with the rag from Nancy's dress. It shone in the
afternoon sunlight, the head of the King of Spain on one side along with
a Latin inscription and the date 1823. On the other side, a coat of
arms.

Perfect! Now, he thought with pleasure, the braves and warriors and
their wives would be more reluctant than ever to challenge him. And that
meant Nancy would be safer.

He held the coin before Wolf Paw's face. "The form is the form of a pale
eyes coin, but this is a gift from the spirit