est. Long I pondered. I talked with the
shamans and the old men who were wise. I went apart that the sounds of
the village might not disturb me, and I ate no meat, so that my belly
should not press upon me and make me slow of eye and ear. I sat long and
sleepless in the forest, wide-eyed for the sign, my ears patient and
keen for the word that
was to come. And I wandered alone in the blackness of night to the river
bank, where was wind-moaning and sobbing of water, and where I sought
wisdom from the ghosts of old shamans in the trees and dead and gone.

"And in the end, as in a vision, came to me the short-haired and
detestable dogs, and the way seemed plain. By the wisdom of Otsbaok, my
father and a strong man, had the blood of our own wolf-dogs been kept
clean, wherefore had they remained warm of hide and strong in the
harness. So I returned to my village and made oration to the men. 'This
be a tribe, these white men,' I said. 'A very large tribe, and doubtless
there is no longer meat in their land, and they are come among us to
make a new land for themselves. But they weaken us, and we die. They are
a very hungry folk. Already has our meat gone from us, and it were well,
if we would live, that we deal by them as we have dealt by their dogs.'

"And further oration I made, counseling fight. And the men of the
Whitefish listened, and some said one thing, and some another, and some
spoke of other and worthless things, and no man made brave talk of deeds
and war. But while the young men were weak as water and afraid, I
watched that the old men sat silent, and that in their eyes fires came
and went. And later, when the village slept and no one knew, I drew the
old men away into the forest and made more talk. And now we were agreed,
and we remembered the good young days, and the free land, and the times
of plenty, and the gladness and sunshine; and we called ourselves
brothers, and swore great secrecy, and a mighty oath to cleanse the
land of the evil breed that had come upon it. It be plain we were fools,
but how were we to know, we old men of the Whitefish?

"And to hearten the others, I did the first deed. I kept guard upon the
Yukon till the first canoe came down. In it were two white men, and when
I stood upright upon the bank and raised my hand they changed their
course and drove in to me. And as the man in the bow lifted his head,
so, that he might know wherefore I wanted him, my arrow sang through the
air straight