oned."

"Do you have any news about the rest of my people?" Auguste asked.

Nicole said, "The Sauk prisoners who walked through here are being held
at Rock Island."

Auguste said, "I must go there and find Redbird and Eagle Feather."

Hearing that she was still in Illinois, he wanted more than ever to
rescue her from hunger and fear and captivity, to bring her and Eagle
Feather here to Victoire.

_If I live to do that._

"Will you join the other Sauk in Ioway after you find your family?"
Frank asked.

Auguste shook his head. "No, I must take my rightful place here. I can
no longer live as a Sauk. If we are to live and prosper, we must live as
the whites do, each man holding and tending his own land. I want to show
my people how it can be done. I want to take Victoire back."

A silence filled the room. A log on the fire broke in two with a loud
crack, spattering sparks on the screen.

Auguste looked at each of them in turn. There was worry in Elysee's
eyes. Nicole's full face was pale with fear, and Frank looked
bewildered. Guichard, standing against the wall, sipped brandy.

Frank said, "But Raoul--he'll try to kill you."

"I mean to let him try. I mean to challenge him."

"You can't." Nicole's voice was shrill. "He's got dozens of men behind
him."

"He will have to fight me man to man. Raoul can hold his place only as
long as his followers think he is the strongest and bravest. They don't
respect him the way they used to. He made too many mistakes. And some of
those mistakes have cost lives among his own men. If he tries to kill me
without fighting me, he'll slip further in their eyes. If he loses the
respect of his men, he loses everything."

Nicole said, "But you're going up against someone who has killed many
times."

_True. And he killed Iron Knife, the biggest and strongest brave in the
British Band._

"I must do this," said Auguste. "I have never killed, but I know how to
use weapons. I must do it for my mother. For all the Sauk that he has
killed. And so that my father's will may be done. I believe the Bear
spirit will help me."

He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. If he let these people
persuade him, he might give up and run away.

Elysee groaned. "The Bear spirit again. Auguste, think how many men have
gone into battle believing God and the saints and the angels would help
them. And have died."

Auguste wished he could explain. Maybe for white men the spirits did not
exis