t he possessed. Simple-minded, but with much of a
child's shrewdness, he quickly came to regard himself as of some
importance when both the Chief and Grom would spend hours in
interrogating him. His own people he repudiated with bitterness,
because, when he had fallen among the rocks and shattered his leg, his
party had refused to burden their flight by helping him. It became his
pride to identify himself with the interests of his master, and to
call himself the slave of his master's baby.

The information which he was able to give was such as to cause the
Chief and Grom the most profound disquietude. It appeared that the
Bow-legs, having gradually recovered from the panic of their appalling
defeat in the Pass of the Little Hills, had made up their minds that
the disaster must be avenged. But no longer did they hold their
opponents cheap on account of their scanty numbers. They realized that
if they would hope to succeed in their next attack they must organize,
and prepare themselves by learning how to employ their forces better.
To this end, therefore, when Mawg and his fellow-renegades fell into
their hands, instead of tearing them to pieces in bestial sport, they
had spared them, and made much of them, and set themselves diligently
to learn all that the strangers could teach. And Mawg, seeing here his
opportunity both for vengeance on Grom and for the gratification of
that mad passion for A-ya which had so long obsessed him, had gone
about the business with shrewd foresight and a convincing zeal.

It was apparent from the accounts which Ook-ootsk was able to give
that the invasion would take place as soon as possible after their
hordes were adequately armed with the new weapons. This, said
Ook-ootsk, would be soon after the dry season had set in. In any case,
he said, the hordes were bound to wait for the dry season, because the
way from their country to the Valley of Fire lay through a region of
swamps which became impassable for any large body of migrants during
the month of rains.

As the dry season was already close upon them, Bawr and Grom now set
themselves feverishly to the arrangement of their defenses. Counting
the older boys who had grown into sizable youths since the last great
battle and all the able-bodied women and girls, they could muster no
more than about six score of actual combatants. They knew that defeat
would mean nothing less than instant annihilation for the tribe, and
for the women a foul