the good
man, who was not, and never could be, fully freed of much of the old
Adam that lingered in his nature. His impulse was strong to smite the
chieftain to the earth for his deadly insult, but Finley always held
such promptings well in hand, and the duskier hue on each health-tinted
cheek was the only evidence that his feelings had been stirred. His
voice was as low and softly modulated as a woman's. He folded both arms
over the muzzle of his rifle, whose stock rested on the leaves at his
feet, and remained calmly confronting the savage chieftain, who more
than once seemed ready to snatch out his knife and drive it into the
heart of the man of God.

"The eyes of Wa-on-mon are not in the sunlight; the smoke is in them;
when the sun drives away the smoke he will see the missionary as he saw
him when they hunted the deer and buffalo and bear together, and when
they helped the Wyandot, Kush-la-ka, to his wigwam."

This allusion was to an incident only a few months old. Kush-la-ka was
almost mortally wounded in a death struggle with an immense bear, and
would have perished had not The Panther and Finley looked after him and
helped him to his own home.

The good man hoped the recall of the occurrence would stir a responsive
chord in the heart of the chieftain, and open the way for uttering the
prayer which he had not yet dared to hint; but the failure was absolute;
the mood of The Panther was too sullen, too revengeful, too deeply
stirred by the memory of recent wrongs for it to be amenable (as it
occasionally had been) to gentle influences. He persisted in regarding
the missionary as a presumptuous and execrated enemy.

"Wa-on-mon is on the war-path," he fairly hissed; "he is the enemy of
all the pale faces."

"Wa-on-mon is a great chieftain; the heart of the missionary is grieved.
Wa-on-mon speaks as he feels, and the missionary will dispute him no
more."

This abrupt collapse, as it may be termed, of the visitor was unexpected
by the Shawanoe. It was a masterful stroke, and produced an immediate
effect, though so slight in its nature that a man less observant than
Finley would have failed to perceive it.

"Why does the missionary come to the camp of Wa-on-mon when more than
one of the Shawanoes have fallen by the rifles of the pale-faces?"

"And the rifles of the Shawanoes have done grievous harm among the
pale-faces?"

"The heart of Wa-on-mon rejoices to learn that!" exclaimed the
chieftain; "how many of