had made his choice, and even though she were the daughter of the great
Powhatan, he did not doubt that the werowance would give her to one of
his best braves. And so, one evening in taquitock (autumn), when the red
glow of the forests was half veiled in the bluish mist that came with
the return of soft languid days after frost had painted the trees and
ripened the bristly chinquapins and luscious persimmons,
Claw-of-the-Eagle took his flute and set forth alone.

Not far from the lodge of Pocahontas he seated himself upon a stone and
began to play the plaintive notes with which the Indian lover tells of
his longing for the maiden he would make his squaw.

"Dost thou hear that, Pocahontas?" queried Cleopatra, who had peeped
out. "It is Claw-of-the-Eagle who pipes for thee. Go forth, Sister, and
make glad his heart, for there is none of our braves who can compare
with him."

"I will not be his squaw. Go thou thyself if he pleaseth thee so," and
Pocahontas would not stir from her tent that evening, though the gentle
piping continued until the moon rose.

Yet Claw-of-the-Eagle did not despair. Not only had he won fame as a
fighter but as a successful hunter as well. Never did he come back to
Wansutis's lodge empty-handed. Though the deer he pursued be never so
swift, or the quail never so wary, he always tracked down his quarry.
And he meant to succeed in his wooing.

So even when Pocahontas left Werowocomoco to visit her kinsfolk, the
Patowomekes, he bided his time and spent his days building a new lodge
nearby that of Wansutis, that it might be in readiness for the day when
he should bring his squaw to light their first fire beneath the opening
under the sky.

Meanwhile affairs in Jamestown had been going from bad to worse. Famine
had become an almost permanent visitor there. Sir Thomas Gale had not
yet arrived from England and no one was there to govern the Colony with
the firm hand of John Smith. At length, however, it was decided in the
Council that Captain Argall should set forth towards the Patowomekes
tribe and bargain with them for grain.

Japezaws, the chief, received him in a friendly manner.

"Yes, we will sell to thee corn as I sold it to thy great Captain when
he first came among us. What news hast thou of him? Will he come again
to us? He was a great brave."

Captain Argall answered:

"We have no word from him. Perchance he hath succumbed of his wound;"
and then, because he was jealous of Smith's