s."

Wolf Paw, slowly sitting up, took the coin and said, "I will wear it
around my neck. Maybe it will be a charm against more wounds."

"Let it remind you that it is honorable to treat prisoners kindly," said
White Bear. He kept his face grave, but within he was bubbling over with
triumph.

After stuffing the wound with buzzard's down and giving Wolf Paw herb
tea to drink, White Bear sent him on his way. The brave stumbled off,
leaning on Running Deer. White Bear stood up, stretched his tired arms
and legs and turned to the doorway of his wickiup.

A painful moment of doubt assailed him. Was this what the way of the
shaman came to, then? Trickery? Perhaps his visions, too, were only
dreams. No, the White Bear spirit was real. He had seen the paw print
beside his father's body. He bore the claw marks on his chest.

He had to force himself to stoop down, to step through the low doorway
and face Nancy. He felt tremulous within. Whatever horrors Nancy had
seen and endured, she would surely blame them on him. In all his paint
and ornaments he was too obviously a Sauk.

And how would his efforts to protect Nancy and win her trust make
Redbird feel? How could he make her truly understand what was between
him and Nancy--and what was not?

He was not sure that he himself understood it.

In the light from the open doorway he saw Nancy, crouched on the
opposite side of the round hut, trembling, still wrapped in the blanket
Redbird had put on her. Redbird and Eagle Feather were sitting silently
against the curving wall.

He sat down facing Nancy and she drew away, shuddering.

He said, "Don't be afraid of me, Nancy. I know I look strange to you.
I'm the shaman, the medicine man, for my people."

"Your people!" she burst out. "Your people murdered my father!"

He had been afraid of that. He bowed his head and closed his eyes.

"Oh, Nancy. I'm sorry."

_What a ridiculous, futile thing to say._

_I must know what happened at Victor. Nancy's father was killed. Who
else?_

White Bear said, "Nancy, I don't ask you to forgive me for what my
people did to you. But I did try to stop all this from happening. I pray
you'll let me tell you how I tried to make peace. And you are safe now
as long as you stay with me."

"Safe with you? Here?" She shuddered. "If I mean anything at all to you,
you've got to help me to get away."

His heart sank. The one thing he was sure he could not do was have her
set free.

"That will