ball with all her might toward the goal posts. The warrior leaped
high to catch it, but it passed six inches above his outstretched
fingers, sailed on through the air, cleared the goal posts, and fell ten
feet on the other side. The Dove had won the game for her side.

The crowd swarmed over the field and congratulated the victorious girls,
particularly the fleet-footed Dove, while the beaten warriors drew off
in a crestfallen group. Timmendiquas, with Henry at his side, was among
the first to give approval, but the renegades remained in their little
group at the edge of the field. Girty was not at all pleased at the time
consumed by the Wyandots in this game. He had other plans that he wished
to urge.

"But it's no use for me to argue with them," he said to Braxton Wyatt.
"They're as set in their ways as any white people that ever lived."

"That's so," said Wyatt, "you're always right, Mr. Girty, I've noticed,
too, since I've been among the Indians that you can't interfere with any
of their rites and ceremonies."

He spoke in a deferential tone, as if he acknowledged his master in
treachery and villainy, and Girty received it as his due. He was
certainly first in this group of six, and the older ones, Blackstaffe,
McKee, Eliot, and Quarles, recognized the fact as willingly as did
Braxton Wyatt.

The crowd, the game finished, was dissolving, and Girty at the head of
his comrades strolled toward Timmendiquas, who still had Henry at his
side.

"Timmendiquas," he said in Wyandot, "beware of this prisoner. Although
but a boy in years, he has strength, courage and skill that few men,
white or red, can equal."

The eyes of the young chief, full of somber fire, were turned upon the
renegade.

"Since when, Girty," he asked, "have the Wyandots become old women?
Since when have they become both weak and ignorant?"

Girty, bold as he was, shrank a little at the stern tone and obvious
wrath of the chief.

"I meant nothing wrong, Timmendiquas," he said. "The world knows that
the Wyandots are both brave and wise."

White Lightning shrugged his shoulders, and turned away with his
prisoner. Henry could understand only a word or two of what they said,
but he guessed its import. Already skilled in forest diplomacy, he knew
that it was wisdom for him to say nothing, and he walked on with White
Lightning. He watched the chief with sharp side glances and saw that he
was troubled. Two or three times he seemed on the point of s