foolish man at Batoche, the traitor Louis Riel. They know he is
a liar and a coward. He leads brave men astray and then runs away and
leaves them to suffer. This thing he did many years ago." And Cameron
proceeded to give a brief sketch of the fantastic and futile rebellion
of 1870 and of the ignoble part played by the vain and empty-headed
Riel.

The effect of Cameron's words upon the Indians was an amazement even to
himself. They forgot their breakfast and gathered close to the speaker,
their eager faces and gleaming eyes showing how deeply stirred were
their hearts.

Cameron was putting into his story an intensity of emotion and passion
that not only surprised himself, but amazed his interpreter. Indeed so
amazed was the little half-breed at Cameron's quite unusual display of
oratorical power that his own imagination took fire and his own tongue
was loosened to such an extent that by voice, look, tone and gesture he
poured into his officer's harangue a force and fervor all his own.

"And now," continued Cameron, "this vain and foolish Frenchman seeks
again to lead you astray, to lead you into war that will bring ruin
to you and to your children; and this lying snake from your ancient
enemies, the Sioux, thinking you are foolish children, seeks to make
you fight against the great White Mother across the seas. He has been
talking like a babbling old man, from whom the years have taken wisdom,
when he says that the half-breeds and Indians can drive the white man
from these plains. Has he told you how many are the children of the
White Mother, how many are the soldiers in her army? Listen to me, and
look! Get me many branches from the trees," he commanded sharply to some
young Indians standing near.

So completely were the Indians under the thrall of his speech that a
dozen of them sprang at once to get branches from the poplar trees near
by.

"I will show you," said Cameron, "how many are the White Mother's
soldiers. See,"--he held up both hands and then stuck up a small twig in
the sand to indicate the number ten. Ten of these small twigs he set in
a row and by a larger stick indicated a hundred, and so on till he had
set forth in the sandy soil a diagrammatic representation of a hundred
thousand men, the Indians following closely his every movement. "And all
these men," he continued, "are armed with rifles and with great big guns
that speak like thunder. And these are only a few of the White Mother's
soldiers. H