g. Otto Wegner
told you how Auguste had a chance to kill him, and instead helped him
escape. At great peril to himself.

"You've heard Pierre de Marion's will, which explains why Raoul de
Marion, who illegally seized the great house known as Victoire, has been
so eager to hound this young man to his death.

"This man has lost everything a man holds dear. His father and mother.
His home here in Victor. His home among the Sauk.

"Almost all of his people, his loved ones and the friends of his youth,
have been killed. Everyone who lives in Victor knows to their sorrow
what happened to his infant daughter. His wife and son are captives,
too, and he cannot be with them or provide for them. Which of you,
having had so much taken from him so cruelly, would not go mad with
grief?

"He has lost so much. All he has left is his life. Let us not, I beg of
you, take that from him as well."

Ford sat down in the midst of a heavy silence. Auguste tried to send his
shaman's sense forward into the future to tell him how the jury would
decide, but his spirit met a blank wall.

He glanced out a nearby unshuttered window and saw a blue afternoon sky
with a few white clouds. Within the wooden walls of this courtroom, sky
and sun, prairie and river, seemed very far away.

Judge Cooper said, "Gentlemen of the jury, we have prepared a room
upstairs for you. We'll send food and drink to you as you require. There
are cots in case you can't make up your minds today."

As he watched the twelve men file up the stairs behind the judge's
table, Auguste could not stop his mind from wandering to the worst. He
thought about what it would be like to be hanged, the rough grip of the
rope on his neck, the blood bursting in his head, the world going black,
his body jerking in hopeless struggle, breath cut off, lungs aching, the
final silencing of his heart.

He heard a harsh laugh in the back of the room. He turned and saw Raoul
in the midst of a group of men standing near the doorway of the
courtroom. Beside Raoul was Armand Perrault. Raoul looked at Auguste and
smiled. Auguste knew what that smile meant.

Whatever the jury decided, for him there would be no escape from death.

23

Sharp Knife

Late that afternoon, Lieutenant Davis called Auguste from his cell and
took him down to the courtroom.

"Judge said send for you. I think maybe the jury's reached a verdict."

Entering through the rear door of the courtroom, Auguste met Ra