as through
glass. He spoke to me in French, but I was deaf. I heard the Senecas
grunt with amusement.

Pemaou heard it too, and his war plume quivered. He gave an order in
Huron, and one of his men came behind me and unbound my hands. I could
have jeered at the childishness of his open purpose. He hoped that,
with my hands free, I would spring at him, impotent and vengeful as a
caged rattlesnake, and that then he could turn me over to the sport and
torture of the mob. I stretched my freed arms, laughed to myself, and
turned away. My laugh was genuine. It was wine to me that he should
have shown weakness in this fashion, when in some ways he had proved
himself a better general than I. It was a small victory, but it
cheered me.

I do not know how long the council lasted, but it seemed hours. The
old men rose at last, and going to Starling, patted him, grunted over
him, and examined him. I could not hear what they said, but it was
evidently pacific; they led him off in the direction of the largest
lodge.

And then came the woman's turn. I knew that my face was strained,
though I strove to keep it sneering. I saw the oldest man give
instructions, then he went to the two women and pointed the way before
him. I pushed along as best I could. He took them to a small hut of
bark and motioned them within, while he himself dropped the mat in
front of the opening. They were safe for that night at least.

The savages were wearied now and turned to Pierre and me with yawns.
They made short work of us. I was bound to the arm of a stout warrior,
and he dragged me under a tree and dropped on the ground. He was
snoring before I had finished building a barricade of cloak between us
to keep as much as possible of his touch and smell away.

The camp quieted rapidly, and I soon had only silence between me and
the stars. My mind was active but curiously placid. Inch by inch I
went over the ground of the last twenty-four hours. I stated the case
to myself as a foreigner translates a lesson. It is sometimes a help
to put a situation in the concrete, to phrase it as to a stranger. In
that way you stand aloof and see new light. So I put the matter in
category, sharing it with the stars, and with the back of the snoring
Indian.

We were in Pemaou's hands. He had known that the Iroquois were coming;
had probably known it months before, and had instigated this campaign.
He wished an alliance with the English, and, th