as battles in a war to defend their homeland were, to the white people
of Illinois, bloody and abominable crimes. Who, after all, had Black
Hawk's war parties been killing? Some soldiers, but mostly farmers and
their wives and children.

It tormented him now, as it did day and night, that no one could see the
bloodshed as he did, with the eyes of both a white man and a Sauk. To
him, what the Sauk were doing was horrible, but it was done out of a
desperate need to cling to the land that meant life to them.

And Nancy's capture showed him how much his years among the pale eyes
had changed him. Even if Wolf Paw had brought back a captive woman who
was a stranger to him, he would have tried to save her. Nor could he
feel that a people willing to torture any woman to death were fully
_his_ people.

Nancy shook her head. "There will be no truce, Auguste. They're coming
to destroy you."

"We asked for peace," he began, "before all this killing started. I went
with a white flag myself--"

Her chest heaved, and her face was a mottled red and white.

"They don't _want_ peace with you. Your braves will kill me when they
realize that. Or the soldiers will kill me when they kill all of your
people."

"No!" he cried, knowing the truth in her words and fighting the agony
within.

"Let me go!" she screamed.

She suddenly whirled away from him and threw herself into the reeds. She
tried to run, and in a moment was in water up to her hips. Frantically
battering at the tall water grasses, she struggled to keep going. The
mist was beginning to swallow her up.

Too surprised to move, White Bear stood watching her for a moment. She
would surely die out there in the marsh, and she didn't realize it. He
plunged into the marsh after her. He drove his legs through the cold
water. The mud sucked at his moccasins. By the time he caught up with
her, he was barefoot.

He threw his arms around her. She thrashed about, turned and struck at
his face with her fists. Her eyes were wild, like a trapped fox's, her
cheeks bright red, her mouth twisted and quivering.

"I've got to get away!"

"Nancy, you can't." They were waist deep in water, and he felt his feet
sinking into the mud.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her as hard as he could. "Listen to
me!"

She went limp in his arms, and he had to hold her up.

"I can't stay here. I won't let them kill me!"

He pulled her toward dry ground, the cold water swirling around them,
sl