it to the chiefs and braves. He said we must follow its arrow
north. But Iron Knife disagreed with him."

Redbird's eyes widened. "My brother never disagrees with Black Hawk.
Black Hawk has lived three times as long as he has."

"Iron Knife spoke for many of the younger braves," White Bear said.
"They want to cross the Great River here, now, and bring the war to an
end. Black Hawk reminded them that we have only three canoes. Each canoe
can hold only six people, and two of those six must paddle back and
forth. They would have to ferry nearly a thousand people. He said the
long knives would reach us long before we all got across. Iron Knife
said they would make rafts and more canoes. In the end the three chiefs
and most of the braves said they would cross the river. Only a few have
agreed to go north with Black Hawk."

It had taken a whole moon to cross from east to west, from their camp in
the Trembling Lands to this place where the Bad Axe River emptied into
the Great River. The land through which they passed, following an old
Winnebago trail, was rolling prairie at first. Then they plunged into
country that was ever wilder and more mountainous as they struggled
westward. At the last they had to cut their own trail. They marked their
passage with kettles, blankets, tent poles and other possessions too
heavy to carry--and their dying old people who could walk no more, and
their dead children. The only good thing about this rugged land was that
it slowed down the long knives even more than it did Black Hawk's
people, who knew by the time they reached the Great River that their
pursuers were two days behind them.

White Bear told Nancy in English what he had just told Redbird about the
council.

"If the band is dividing, where will _we_ go?" Nancy asked.

"I asked Black Hawk--I begged him--to let you and Woodrow go." Anger
crept into White Bear's voice as he recalled Black Hawk's stubbornness.
"He still refuses. He wants to take the two of you north with him."

Redbird said, "But pale eyes prisoners are no good to Black Hawk now."
White Bear was pleased to see that she had learned to get the drift of
English conversations between him and Nancy. He did not like to feel
that he was leaving Redbird out of anything, especially since he _knew_
Nancy now.

"True," White Bear said to Redbird in Sauk. "And if we meet up with long
knives again they will shoot first and not think to look for pale eyes
among us. I want to