fused to bear
witness against Little Hammer. "D' ye think--does wan av y' think--that
I'll speak a word agin the man--haythen or no haythen--that pulled me
out of me tomb and put me betune the barrack quilts? Here's the stripes
aff me arm, and to gaol I'll go; but for what wint before I clapt the
iron on his wrists, good or avil, divil a word will I say. An' here's me
left hand, and there's me right fut, and an eye of me too, that I'd part
with, for the cause of him that's done a trick that your honour wouldn't
do--an' no shame to y' aither--an' y'd been where Little Hammer was with
me."

His honour did not reply immediately, but he looked meditatively at
Little Hammer before he said quietly,--"Perhaps not, perhaps not."

And Little Hammer, thinking he was expected to speak, drew his blanket
up closely about him and grunted, "How!"

Pretty Pierre, the notorious half-breed, was then called. He kissed the
Book, making the sign of the Cross swiftly as he did so, and unheeding
the ironical, if hesitating, laughter in the court. Then he said:
"'Bien,' I will tell you the story-the whole truth. I was in the Stony
Plains. Little Hammer was 'good Injin' then.... Yes, sacre! it is a fool
who smiles at that. I have kissed the Book. Dam!... He would be chief
soon when old Two Tails die. He was proud, then, Little Hammer. He go
not to the Post for drink; he sell not next year's furs for this year's
rations; he shoot straight."

Here Little Hammer stood up and said: "There is too much talk. Let me
be. It is all done. The sun is set--I care not--I have killed him;" and
then he drew his blanket about his face and sat down.

But Pierre continued: "Yes, you killed him-quick, after five years--that
is so; but you will not speak to say why. Then, I will speak. The Injins
say Little Hammer will be great man; he will bring the tribes together;
and all the time Little Hammer was strong and silent and wise. Then
Brigley the trapper--well, he was a thief and coward. He come to Little
Hammer and say, 'I am hungry and tired.' Little Hammer give him food and
sleep. He go away. 'Bien,' he come back and say,--'It is far to go; I
have no horse.' So Little Hammer give him a horse too. Then he come back
once again in the night when Little Hammer was away, and before morning
he go; but when Little Hammer return, there lay his bride--only an Injin
girl, but his bride-dead! You see? Eh? No? Well, the Captain at the Post
he says it was the same as Lu