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It was agreed that Dubisson should bring her in for a short time. Yet when she did come in I could not look at her. Longuant had just finished speaking, and I had all my mind could handle to do him justice as I wished. He spoke as the moderate leader who desired that his people leave the hatchet unlifted if they could do so with safety.
With all my artifices, I could not make my way into the great circle around the camp fire, and I grew sore with my incapacity, for I saw that Longuant, the most powerful chief of the Ottawas, was speaking. I picked up a bone and threw it among the dogs with an oath for my own slowness.
"It was a long council," I said, "and all the old men were there. Longuant was leader, but he was but one of many. The Ottawas are much stirred." "About the prisoner?" I shook my head. "The prisoner is the excuse, the touchstone. The real matter goes deep. You have not blinded these people. They know that England and France are at war, but they know, too, that peace may be declared any day.
He had as keen a mind as I have ever known, and he was not hampered by any of the scruples and decencies that interfere with a white man. So he was my superior in resource. I knew, as I saw him look at me now, that my share in the game was over. He had seen me listening to Longuant.
I hear that you danced where they danced, and shared dog-meat and jest alike. In faith, Montlivet, I have a good will to keep you here in irons if I can do it in no gentler way. But what did Longuant say at the council fire?" I made sure that we were alone, and dropped into a chair. My muscles were complaining, yet I knew that I had but begun my day's work.
I pushed her down on the sand. "Stop!" I said. "I knew you would seek me here. Now answer briefly. Pemaou and his men would not let you get near the window?" "No." "They had seen you with me," I explained. "I feared it. Did Longuant and his men come?" "Like bees," she answered, with a fling of her arms. "They are everywhere. We can do nothing;" and she dropped her head in her arms and cried.
In repose his face was very sad, as are the faces of most savage leaders. "I have only two eyes, two ears," he crooned monotonously. "My brother has as many. Let him use them." "And you will not lift your hatchet to save the tree?" Longuant raised his eyes. "The hatchet of the Ottawas is always bright. My brethren will hold it in readiness.
"I sent Longuant there. I was sure that Pemaou would keep you away, and I am playing for time. So long as the Ottawas and Hurons are squabbling with one another, Cadillac will not deliver the prisoner. But we must get them farther away. Singing Arrow, I have brandy in my cargo. I have drawn off two large flasks. Could you carry them to the other end of the camp, and send word among the braves?"
"The tree of friendship that grows for the Ottawas and the French, are its roots deep, Longuant?" The old chief looked at me. "What has my brother seen?" "The Iroquois wolf, my brother. The Iroquois wolf snapping at the roots of this stately tree. What will the Ottawas do, Longuant? Will they drive the wolf away?" The chief still studied me.
The contrast thrilled through me like a violin note. I heard my tongue use imagery that I did not know was in me. The woman waited till I was through, and I could feel that she was listening. Then she turned with Dubisson and they went out of the door. Longuant was the last of our garrison Indians to speak, and when he finished it remained to Cadillac to sum up the situation.
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