e of light from the Indian camp.

He approached cautiously at first in order that he might take a good
look into the camp, and he was surprised at what he saw. In a single
day the village had been enlarged much more. It seemed to him that it
contained at least twice as many warriors. Women and children, too, had
come, and he heard a stray dog barking here and there. Many more fires
than usual were burning, and there was a great murmur of voices.

Henry was much taken aback at first. It seemed that he was about to
plunge into the midst of the whole Iroquois nation, and at a time,
too, when something of extreme importance was going on, but a little
reflection showed that he was fortunate. Amid so many people, and so
much ferment it was not at all likely that he would be noticed closely.
It was his intention, if the necessity came, to pass himself off as a
warrior of the Shawnee tribe who had wandered far eastward, but he meant
to avoid sedulously the eye of Timmendiquas, who might, through his size
and stature, divine his identity.

As Henry lingered at the edge of the camp, in indecision whether to wait
a little or plunge boldly into the light of the fires, he became aware
that all sounds in the village-for such it was instead of a camp-had
ceased suddenly, except the light tread of feet and the sound of many
people talking low. He saw through the bushes that all the Iroquois, and
with them the detachment of Wyandots under White Lightning, were going
toward a large structure in the center, which he surmised to be the
Council House. He knew from his experience with the Indians farther west
that the Iroquois built such structures.

He could no longer doubt that some ceremony of the greatest importance
was about to begin, and, dismissing indecision, he left the bushes
and entered the village, going with the crowd toward the great pole
building, which was, indeed, the Council House.

But little attention was paid to Henry. He would have drawn none at all,
had it not been for his height, and when a warrior or two glanced at him
he uttered some words in Shawnee, saying that he had wandered far,
and was glad to come to the hospitable Iroquois. One who could speak
a little Shawnee bade him welcome, and they went on, satisfied, their
minds more intent upon the ceremony than upon a visitor.

The Council House, built of light poles and covered with poles and
thatch, was at least sixty feet long and about thirty feet wide, with