ack of sense, that Pemaou would not accept my covert
challenge, and that the matter would end there. But Pemaou had
purposes of his own. He looked at the spear for a moment, then sent it
spinning toward my head. "On guard!" he cried in my own tongue, and I
remembered that he had spent some time among the French at Montreal.

I caught the spear, and cursed myself for a fool. The Indians again
gave tongue to their approval, and gathered in a ring, leaving the
space between Pemaou and myself clear. All was ready for the game to
proceed. I hesitated a moment, and the Ottawas laughed, while Pemaou
looked disdainful.

All animals are braggarts, from the cock in the barnyard to the moose
when he hears his rival, and man is not much better. I pricked the
spear point against my hand, and looked at it critically.

"It is as dull as the Huron's wits," I scoffed, "but we will do the
best that we can with it;" and stepping back several feet nearer the
council fire, I put the weapon into play.

I have been in weightier occasions than the one that followed, but
never in one that I can remember in more detail. In all lives there
are moments that memory paints in bright, crude colors, like pictures
in a child's book, and so this scene looks to me now. I can see the
crowding Ottawas, their bodies painted red and black, their nose
pendants--a pebble hung on a deer-sinew--swinging against their greasy
lips as they shouted plaudits or derision. But best I can see Pemaou,
dancing between me and the sun like some grotesque dream fantasy. He
was in full war bravery, his body painted red, barred with white
stripes to imitate the lacing on our uniforms, and his hair
feather-decked till he towered in height like a fir tree. I say that
he was grotesque, but at the time I did not think of his appearance; I
thought only that here was a man who was my mate in cunning, and who
wished me ill.

This was no squaw's game, for each cast was made with force and method.
We both threw warily, and the spear whistled to and fro as regularly as
a weaver's shuttle. I backed my way toward the council fire until I
could hear Longuant distinctly, then I prayed my faculties to serve me
well, and stood my ground. My mind was on the rack. I could not, for
the briefest instant, release the tension of my thought as to the game
before me, yet I missed no sound from the group around the fire. The
low, red sun dazzled my eyes, and I waited, with each th