etting my tongue win the way
for my ears, and I dealt out blunt questions like a man at a forge. At
one point I was foiled. I could not discover whether Starling--whom
personally I had not seen--was in communication with the Hurons.

The sun set, the sky purpled, and the moon rose. It rose white and
beautiful, and it shone on a peaceful settlement. I went to my room
and found a Huron squatting on my threshold. He gave me a handful of
maize.

"Our chief, whom you call the Baron, sends this to you," he said. "He
bids you eat the corn, and swallow with it the suspicion that you feel.
You have sat all day with other chiefs, but your brother the Baron has
not seen you. His lodge cries out with emptiness. He bids you come to
him now."

I thought a moment. "Go in front of me," I told the Huron.

I whistled as I went. A sheep that goes to the shambles of its own
accord deserves to be butchered, and I was walking into ambush. But
still I whistled. I whistled the same tune again and again, and I did
it with great lung power. My progress was noisy.

And so we went through the Huron camp. The lodges of the Baron's
followers were massed to one side, and as I whistled and swaggered my
way past their great bark parallelograms, I saw preparations for war.
The braves carried quivers, and were elaborately painted. Fires were
burning, though the night was warm, and women nearly naked, and
swinging kettles of red-hot coals, danced heavily around the blaze.
They leered at me when they heard my whistle, but they made no attempt
to hide from me. Evidently I was not important; I was not to be
allowed to go back to the French camp alive, so I could do no harm. I
whistled the louder.

I reached the Baron's lodge, and looked within. Two fires blazed in
the centre, and some fifty Indians sat in council. I would not enter.
The smoke and fire were in my eyes, but I recognized several of the
younger chiefs, and called them by name.

"Come out here to me," I commanded. "I will show you something."

There was a grunting demur, and no one rose. I whistled again and
stopped to laugh. The laugh pricked their curiosity, and the chiefs
straggled out. They stood in an uncertain group and looked at me. It
was dark; the moon was still low, and the shadows black and sprawling.
The open doors of the lodges sent out as much smoke as fireshine.

I let them look for a moment, then I took the handful of maize and
threw it in their