aggarak, and he asked the boys to give their
recollection, not omitting a word they could recall. Their friend
listened gravely, and was silent when they had finished, his dark eyes
fixed upon the fire in the middle of the lodge, as if his meditations
had drifted beyond the time and place. After waiting for several
minutes, Victor said:

"Deerfoot, you can't know how much we are worried. We understand how
you feel and that no danger can scare you into denying the true
religion, any more than it can scare George and me, but you may as well
be careful and avoid rousing the anger of Taggarak, so long as there is
no need of provoking him."

"What would my brothers have Deerfoot do?" gently asked, the Shawanoe.

"We don't know," replied George. "Vic and I have talked about this a
hundred times since our call on the chief, and we are puzzled as well
as worried."

"Are my brothers ready to die for the religion?"

"We are, and will prove it if it ever becomes necessary; but," added
Victor, "we don't see the need of dying when there isn't any need of
it."

This original bit of philosophy caused Deerfoot to turn and look with a
half-serious expression into the face of Victor.

"How great is the wisdom of my brother! Who taught him such things?"

Then assuming a graver countenance, but gazing steadily at his friend,
he added:

"There was One who died on the cross for you and Deerfoot."

There was a world of meaning in these words, and they fitly closed the
conversation for the night. All lay down soon after and slept until
morning.

The snow ceased falling, and only a thin coating lay on the ground at
daylight. An unusual moderation in the temperature carried this away
before nightfall, and the weather became almost spring-like, or rather
resembled the lingering days of Indian summer, which are the expiring
gasp of the mild season, soon to be followed by the biting rigors of
winter.

Before noon it was known throughout the Blackfoot village that the
remarkable young Shawanoe had arrived. The excitement was greater than
that caused by the coming of Victor and George Shelton, and for a time
Deerfoot was seriously annoyed, but he strove to bear it with the
sensible philosophy of his nature. Those who saw him as he moved here
and there with the boys, or Mul-tal-la, or Spink and Jiggers, had to
admit the truth of the assertion heard many times; he was the most
prepossessing young warrior upon whom any of them had ever l