magic incantations. And the shamans, sure always of an
audience in Catanaugh, made much of him, and in many ways without his
knowing it, used him as a tool.

Now, it was at their bidding that he sat there motionless, except for
his lips, which recited in a tone as regular and as loud as a
tree-toad's the words of an incantation they had taught him. And all the
time he, who had never trembled before an enemy, was trembling from fear
of the unknown. Of course, it was wise for the shamans to make this
trial, but he wished it had been possible for one of them to have taken
his place. But they knew they would never have got the chance to slip
unnoticed as he had done into the lodge of the white man's Okee.

He wondered how this strange Okee would answer his call, for answer he
knew he must. The incantation was such strong medicine that no spirit
could resist it, especially when he shook the rattle as he did now,
rising to his feet and lifting his foot higher and higher, as bending
over, he went round and round on his tiptoes, always within the confines
of the tobacco circle. The shamans had been determined to find out what
kind of an Okee protected the white men, and it was only in this spot
they could do so. The palefaces knew so many things the Indian had never
learned and which he must learn if he was to hold his own against the
terrible medicine of the strangers.

Catanaugh was afraid he might forget some of the magic words the Okee
would speak, which the shamans had told him he must hold fast in his
mind as he would hold a slippery eel in his hand. Even if he didn't
understand them he must just remember them, because they would be wise
enough to interpret them. He meant, too, if he only had the courage, to
try to make the Okee prevent the wedding.

He had been shaking the rattle gently for fear it might be heard outside
the church; but now, anxious to bring this dreadful task to an end, he
began to shake it with all his might in one last challenge to the
strange spirit.

Bim! Bam! Boum! BOUM! Bim!

Catanaugh jumped like a deer that hears the crackle of a twig behind it.
Here in the deep brazen voice of the marriage bells ringing out in the
belfry above him he thought he heard the answer his incantation had
forced from the white man's Okee. But the voice was so terrible, so
loud, that, forgetting the shaman's injunctions, forgetting everything
but his need to escape, he rushed to the door, unbolted it frantically