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He read at hazard from the document: "In that year, before the break of the ice, came an old man, and a boy who was lame of one foot. These also did I kill, and the old man made much noise " "It be true," Imber interrupted breathlessly, "He made much noise and would not die for a long time. But how dost thou know, Howkan? The chief man of the white men told thee, mayhap?
And thou shalt understand and say if it be true talk or talk not true. It is so commanded." Howkan had fallen among the mission folk and been taught by them to read and write. In his hands he held the many fine sheets from which the man had read aloud and which had been taken down by a clerk when Imber first made confession, through the mouth of Jimmy, to Captain Alexander. Howkan began to read.
At the moments when Imber paused to remember, Howkan translated and a clerk reduced to writing. The courtroom listened stolidly to each unadorned little tragedy, till Imber told of a red-haired man whose eyes were crossed and whom he had killed with a remarkably long shot. "Hell," said a man in the forefront of the onlookers. He said it soulfully and sorrowfully. He was red-haired.
So ran the interpretation of Howkan, whose inherent barbarism gripped hold of him, and who lost his mission culture and veneered civilization as he caught the savage ring and rhythm of old Imber's tale. "My father was Otsbaok, a strong man. The land was warm with sunshine and gladness when I was a boy.
I am very old, and very tired, and it being vain fighting the Law, as thou sayest, Howkan, I am come seeking the Law." "O Imber, thou art indeed a fool," said Howkan. But Imber was dreaming. The square-browed judge likewise dreamed, and all his race rose up before him in a mighty phantasmagoria his steel-shod, mail-clad race, the law-giver and world-maker among the families of men.
He began to speak in a low and faintly rumbling voice, but Howkan interrupted him. "This old man, he is damn crazy," he said in English to the square-browed man. "His talk is foolish and like that of a child." "We will hear his talk which is like that of a child," said the square-browed man. "And we will hear it, word for word, as he speaks it. Do you understand?"
No one beheld me, and him alone have I told." Howkan shook his head with impatience. "Have I not told thee it be there in the paper, O fool?" Imber stared hard at the ink-scrawled surface.
So ran the interpretation of Howkan, whose inherent barbarism gripped hold of him, and who lost his mission culture and veneered civilization as he caught the savage ring and rhythm of old Imber's tale. "My father was Otsbaok, a strong man. The land was warm with sunshine and gladness when I was a boy.
Thereafter, and for a long time, Howkan read to him the confession, and Imber remained musing and silent At the end, he said: "It be my talk, and true talk, but I am grown old, Howkan, and forgotten things come back to me which were well for the head man there to know.
Thus it comes." "Thus it comes? It be there in the paper?" Imber's voice sank in whisperful awe as he crackled the sheets 'twixt thumb and finger and stared at the charactery scrawled thereon. "It be a great medicine, Howkan, and thou art a worker of wonders." "It be nothing, it be nothing," the young man responded carelessly and pridefully.
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