iefs rose. It is strange. An Indian may
scalp and torture, yet have at heart much of the seer and poet. The
chiefs came forward and laid their bows and quivers full of arrows at
my feet.

For a moment Outchipouac's speech had warmed me as I thought I might
not be warm again. But when I saw the chiefs advancing I became stone.

"I cannot lead you," I said in Algonquin, and I knew my voice was
blank. "Outchipouac is wrong. I am no manitou, but a man so weak he
does not know the truth even for himself. How can he lead others?
When I brought you here the sun shone brightly, and I thought I saw the
way ahead. Now I am in darkness and mist. Go. Leave me. Find a
leader whose sight is not clouded." I turned my back and stood with my
head down.

A murmur rose. I had broken the illusion. We had all been riding the
clouds of fancy, and I had dashed us to earth again. The chiefs had
come to me with their hands out, and I had thrown water in their faces.
They had reason for their anger. Cadillac saw the pantomime and
lumbered from his seat. He seized my arm.

"Montlivet, you are insane! You are insane!"

I pointed him to the woods. "Monsieur, I have dropped my sword. I
shall go into the forest for a time."

He shook me as if I were in a torpor. "Your wife"----

"I shall search for her. I am going out now with Indian trailers. I
shall not leave this country till all hope is past,--then I shall go
west."

For a moment suspicion clutched him. "Oh, you would form your union
without me! You are planning a dictatorship."

I took him by the arm and begged him to understand. "I have dropped my
sword," I reiterated. "I am going on alone. I have skins and
provisions cached at Sturgeon Cove--enough for barter. I am not
insane. I shall go prudently. There are lands and peoples to be
explored in the west."

The clamor grew. Dubisson and others of the French came nearer.

"Speak to the chiefs now. Speak to them now," they begged. "You can
save the situation yet."

I watched the Indians. "They are departing peacefully."

"But they are departing!"

I looked at Cadillac. "And why not?"

He drew his sword. "Montlivet, have you turned priest--or coward? Do
you dare to try and tell me that war is wrong?"

I looked at him, and left my own sword untouched. "I do not know what
I believe. I am going back in the woods. Perhaps I shall learn. But
now we have done all that we set out to do. We ha