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Perhaps, she said, there was some strange medicine in this ceremony which would make their father invulnerable and perchance safe even from death itself. "I have more faith in the white men's guns than in their medicine," declared Claw-of-the-Eagle. "Ever since one of those fat housebuilders whom they call Dutchmen let me try to fire off one of them, I know now that they are not worked by magic.
Claw-of-the-Eagle had never been able to look Smith in the eye since he crawled away from the lodge where he had meant to kill the white man. It was only Smith himself who awed him so; but he dreamed that some day he might be able to deal a blow in the dark when those terrible eyes could not stop him. In the meantime he felt equal to meeting the other palefaces day or night.
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.
He believed The Powhatan himself now regretted that he had yielded to affection and to an ancient custom, and that he would gladly see his enemy dead, in order that the news carried to his interloping countrymen might serve as a warning of the fate that awaited them all. Suppose then the thought flashed through his brain that he, Claw-of-the-Eagle, should make this wish a fact!
The knowledge that an old and tried friend was near was as grateful as a light shining before one on a dark night. Yet she answered: "I can not go with thee, Claw-of-the-Eagle." The young brave uttered a low murmur of astonishment.
"Is that too for me?" she asked eagerly and clasped it to her breast when it was put into her hand, and then she peered into it from one side and the other, unwearied in making acquaintance with her own features. The other maidens and Claw-of-the-Eagle were given presents also, but less showy ones.
They kept still, breathless, for a moment; then as all was still again, Claw-of-the-Eagle asked sadly, in a tone that mourned as wind through the pine trees: "Then thou wilt not come with me? I had built a lodge for thee, Matoaka, with a smoke hole wide enough to let in the whole moon thou lovest.
With the same caution with which he crept after a deer in a thicket, Claw-of-the-Eagle moved on hands and knees along the ground within the lodge. Lying flat on his stomach, he gazed at the Englishman. He had heard repeated about the village the night before the details of his rescue as they had taken place within the ceremonial wigwam.
Now I have talked with our father, Wahunsunakuk, of what I now speak, since we can no longer hope to hide our trail again to these wanderers from the rising sun, that it is better to make friends of these who have come and who seem well-disposed towards us, and to have them for allies rather than enemies." In spite of himself, Claw-of-the-Eagle was impressed with this reasoning.
But he would not fire at her the thought flashed through her brain! With a few rapid strokes she had reached the brave and flung her arm under his wounded shoulder, bearing him up. "Now, Claw-of-the-Eagle," she cried, "let us make for the shore. They will not dare fire at me."
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