I was not sure.

And all the time that I was speaking I wondered if I looked and talked
as other men did. Would the savages obey me as they had done when I
was a live, breathing force, full of ardor and belief? They seemed to
see no difference. I finished my talk to them and turned to Cadillac.

"You do not need me now. You will be occupied caring for the wounded
and burying the dead. The Indians will not attempt torture to-day. I
am going to the woods."

"To the woods?"

"The woman is in the woods. She must have gone at the first alarm. I
cannot find her here."

"Ask the captives. They will know."

"It is useless to ask them. They will not speak now. It is a code. I
am going to the woods. Send what soldiers you can to search with me."

"Shall I send Indians with you, too?"

"Not now. They are useless now. They could trail nothing. Let me go."

He followed like a father. "You will come back?"

"Yes, I will come back."

But I had three things to do before I was free to go to the woods. To
go to the woods where I would find the woman.

I searched for the Miami slave woman. She was dead. That cut my last
hope of news.

I saw that Pemaou was still well bound, and I had him carried into a
hut to await my orders.

I went to Pierre's body. Singing Arrow still wailed beside it, and
cried out that it should not be moved. I told her the soldiers would
obey her orders, and carry it where she wished.

But there was a fourth matter. I spoke to Dubisson, and my tongue was
furry and cold.

"See that watch is kept on the bags of scalps for European hair."

Then I went to the woods.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE UNDESERVED

There were birds in the woods, and soft breezes. Squirrels chattered
at me, and I saw flowers. And sometimes I saw blood on trampled moss
where fugitives had been before.

I called, and fired my arquebus. I whistled, for that sound carried
far. Since that day the sound of a whistle is terrible to me. It
means despair.

Soldiers, grave-faced, respectful, followed me.

They were faint for food, and sore and sick from warfare, but they came
with me without protest. They gave me the deference we show a mourner
in a house of death. I turned to them in a rage.

"Make more noise. Laugh. Talk. Be natural. I command you."

We divided the woods among us, like game-beaters in a thicket, and went
over the ground foot by foot. We found nothing. The birds sang and