r that he understood.

"I guess Miss Nancy and me could find our way to white folks if we
follow the river," Woodrow said uncertainly. With the beaded headband
Iron Knife had given him wrapped around his high forehead, and his face
browned by the summer sun, he looked like a Sauk boy, except for his
light brown hair. He seemed not much happier about leaving the band than
Nancy.

"I'm not going to send you to find your way alone," White Bear said.
"I'll go with you until I see you in safe hands. Prairie du Chien and
Fort Crawford are south of here on the river. If we go in that direction
we're bound to meet some of your people."

"I got no people but you," said Woodrow. "You treated me better than my
folks ever did."

White Bear felt a catch in his throat. He remembered how, seven years
ago, he had fought against being sent from the tribe when Star Arrow
came looking for him.

Eagle Feather's blue eyes rested gravely on White Bear. "What about
Mother and Floating Lily and me? Are we going to cross the Great River
now?"

White Bear remembered again what the Turtle had said in his vision. He
looked out at the river, tinged with red by the sunset, and felt a
chill. Calamity, his shaman's sense told him, awaited those who tried to
escape by crossing the river again.

"No." White Bear looked over at Redbird, who held Floating Lily to her
breast. "Day after tomorrow at the latest, the long knives will be here.
I want you to go with Black Hawk. Though I think Black Hawk has led us
unwisely, still, to go north is safer. Three lodges, about fifty people,
are going with Black Hawk. Owl Carver, Flying Cloud, Wolf Paw--they will
follow him."

He shook his head sadly.

"What is it?" Redbird asked.

"Even Wolf Paw disagrees with Black Hawk about going north. He himself
will remain at his father's side, but he is sending his two wives and
his children across the river. He thinks they will be safer. I think he
is wrong."

He gazed out at the reddened river and shook his head again.

"Wolf Paw made the right choice for his family," said a deep voice
behind him. White Bear turned to see Iron Knife's huge figure,
silhouetted by the setting sun. Behind him trudged a much smaller shadow
whom White Bear recognized at once--Sun Woman.

White Bear hurried to his mother, put his arm around her shoulders and
led her to the fallen tree to sit down. He could feel her bones under
her doeskin dress.

"How is my mother?"

She pat