hem, and they
followed me with the eyes of snarling dogs. But they would not have
gone a mile without my hand to beckon.

So through filth and gnats, heat, toil, and lack of food, I followed
Ambition.

CHAPTER XXX

THE MEANING OP CONQUEST

When I stumbled along the bank of the little stream that marked our
rendezvous, I was mud-splashed, torn, and insect-poisoned, and I led a
brutish set of ruffians. Yet I heard a muffled cheer roar out as I
came into view. The Winnebagoes were in camp and in waiting.

I forgot ache and weariness. The Winnebagoes were fifty in all, picked
men, and I looked them over and exulted. Erect and clean-limbed, they
were as dignified and wonderful as a row of fir trees, and physically I
felt a sorry object beside them. Yet they hailed me as leader, and
placing me on a robe of deerskins carried me into camp. They smoked
the pipe of fealty with me, and when I slept that night I knew that my
dream castles of the last two years were at last shaping into something
I could touch and handle. Their glitter was giving way to masonry.

The morning brought the Malhominis, the noon the Chippewas. I hoped
for the French and the Pottawatamies by night.

But the night did not bring them, nor the next morning, nor the next
day, nor yet the day following.

And in the waiting days I lived in four camps of savages, and it was my
duty to cover them with the robe of peace.

The wolf-eyed Sacs, the stately Winnebagoes, the Chippewas, and
Malhominis,--they sat like gamecocks, quiet, but alert for a ruffle of
one another's plumage. In council they were men; in idleness,
children. When I was with them, they talked of war and spoke like
senators. When I turned my back they gambled, lied, bragged, and
stole. I needed four bodies and uncounted minds.

And I saw how my union was composed. The tribes would unite and
destroy the Senecas,--that done, it was probable they would find the
game merry, and fall upon one another.

With every hour of delay they grew harder to control. There was
jealousy between the war chiefs. I stepped on thin ice in my walks
from lodge to lodge.

But the third day brought Cadillac. We saw the blur of his canoes far
to the north, and when they came within earshot we were ranged to
receive them.

A man should know pride in his achievement,--else why is striving given
him? I looked over my warriors, rank on rank. Fierce-eyed, muscled
like panthers, they were