im here in Victor. These people had killed Floating Lily.
Let them kill him too. He did not want to live in a world that had
killed his baby daughter.

He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He glanced at it and saw
Frank's ink-blackened fingers pressing into the blue calico shirt his
captors at Fort Crawford had given him.

He looked up to see lawyer Thomas Ford's sad eyes on him, but kindly
gestures and looks meant nothing to him now. How could people tear a
baby girl from her mother's arms and beat her to death?

_But the Sauk war parties killed children too. All people are cruel,
white and red._

"I would be better off on the Trail of Souls," he said in a low voice.

_My mother and my daughter, Sun Woman and Floating Lily, both dead._

"Nancy and Nicole and I tried to stop them," Frank said, his eyes moist,
"but the crowd was too big. We couldn't get through until it was too
late. Nancy told us the baby was your daughter. Nicole and Nancy tried
as best they could to comfort your wife."

For all he knew, Redbird might think him dead. He had asked his guards
at Fort Crawford to pass word to her that he was alive, but he had no
idea whether any of his messages had reached her.

Ford, the lawyer from Vandalia Frank had hired to defend Auguste, said,
"What happened shows how angry the people of Victor still are against
the Sauk. I still think we have to ask for a change of venue." Ford was
a short, slender man with a round face and bright, intelligent eyes.
Leaning against the rough-hewn log wall of Auguste's cell, he wore a
dark brown frock coat with a high collar that came up to his ears.

Frank said, "Many people here feel terribly sorry for Auguste. And a lot
of us decided, after we survived the siege, that we wouldn't put up
anymore with the lawlessness that Raoul and his crew represent."

_But Raoul is back now_, Auguste thought. _He'll start to take control
again._

Ford said, "Well, Auguste ought to tell us what he thinks. It's his
neck."

Auguste took a deep breath. The clean smell of fresh-cut wood filled his
nostrils. A good smell, but it reminded him that this village hall was
only recently rebuilt, that last June Wolf Paw's raiding party had
burned down everything in Victor except Raoul's trading post. How could
he possibly get a fair trial here?

Auguste said, "At least here I have some people who know me and care
about me."

Ford sighed. "So be it. Frank, I want a list of every man who