't even suspect them!" cried Hamilton gaily. "I wish you
might meet a few of our talented brigadiers and colonels; _they_ have no
doubts concerning their several abilities!" Then, suddenly serious:
"Listen, sir. You know the north; you were bred and born to a knowledge
of the Iroquois, their language, character, habits, their intimate
social conditions, nay, you are even acquainted with what no other
living white man comprehends--their secret rites, their clan and family
laws and ties, their racial instincts, their most sacred rituals! You
are a sachem! Sir William Johnson was one, but he is dead. Who else
living, besides yourself, can speak to the Iroquois with clan
authority?"

"I do not know," I said, troubled. "Walter Butler may know something of
the Book of Rites, because he was raised up in place of some dead
Delaware dog!--" I clinched my hand, and stood silent in angry
meditation. Lifting my eyes I saw Hamilton watching me, amazed,
interested, delighted.

"I ask your indulgence," I said, embarrassed, "but when I think of the
insolence of that fellow--and that he dared call me brother and claim
clan kindred with a Wolf--the yellow Delaware mongrel!--" I laughed,
glancing shamefacedly at Colonel Hamilton.

"In another moment," I said, "you will doubt there is white blood in
me. It is strange how faithfully I cling to that dusky foster-mother,
the nation that adopted me. I was but a lad, Colonel Hamilton, and what
the Oneidas saw in me, or believed they saw, I never have accurately
learned--I do not really know to this day!--but when a war-chief died
they came to my father, asking that he permit them to adopt me and
raise me up. The ceremony took place. I, of course, never lived with
them--never even left my own roof--but I was adopted into the Wolf
Clan, the noble clan of the Iroquois. And--I have never forgotten
it--nor them. What touches an Oneida touches me!"

He nodded gravely, watching me with bright eyes.

"To-day the Long House is not the Five Nations," I continued. "The
Tuscaroras are the Sixth Nation; the Delawares now have come in, and
have been accepted as the Seventh Nation. But, as you know, the Long
House is split. The Onondagas are sullenly neutral--or say they
are--the Mohawks, Cayugas, Senecas, are openly leagued against us; the
Oneidas alone are with us--what is left of them after the terrible
punishment they received from the Mohawks and Senecas."

"And now you say that the Iroquois have