about where Moklan has gone, now he is dead. There be
large fires in that place, and if missionary make true talk, I know that
Moklan will be cold no more. Also the missionary talk about where I
shall go when I am dead. And he say bad things. He say that I am blind.
Which is a lie. He say that I am in great darkness. Which is a lie. And
I say that the day come and the night come for everybody just the same,
and that in my village it is no more dark than at Cambell Fort. Also, I
say that darkness and light and where we go when we die be different
things from the matter of payment of just debt for bad water. Then the
missionary make large anger, and call me bad names of darkness, and tell
me to go away. And so I come back from Cambell Fort, and no payment has
been made, and Moklan is dead, and in my old age I am without fish and
meat."

"Because of the white man," said Zilla.

"Because of the white man," Ebbits concurred. "And other things because
of the white man. There was Bidarshik. One way did the white man deal
with him; and yet another way for the same thing did the white man deal
with Yamikan. And first must I tell you of Yamikan, who was a young man
of this village and who chanced to kill a white man. It is not good to
kill a man of another people. Always is there great trouble. It was not
the fault of Yamikan that he killed the white man. Yamikan spoke always
soft words and ran away from wrath as a dog from a stick. But this white
man drank much whiskey, and in the night-time came to Yamikan's house and
made much fight. Yamikan cannot run away, and the white man tries to
kill him. Yamikan does not like to die, so he kills the white man.

"Then is all the village in great trouble. We are much afraid that we
must make large payment to the white man's people, and we hide our
blankets, and our furs, and all our wealth, so that it will seem that we
are poor people and can make only small payment. After long time white
men come. They are soldier white men, and they take Yamikan away with
them. His mother make great noise and throw ashes in her hair, for she
knows Yamikan is dead. And all the village knows that Yamikan is dead,
and is glad that no payment is asked.

"That is in the spring when the ice has gone out of the river. One year
go by, two years go by. It is spring-time again, and the ice has gone
out of the river. And then Yamikan, who is dead, comes back to us, and
he is not de