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Updated: June 11, 2025
The threat coming from a man like Heraka, who spoke in a tone at once charged with malice and power, was full of evil portent. Had an ordinary Indian threatened him thus he might not have been affected so deeply, but with the decree of Heraka he seemed to vanish completely from the face of the earth, or, at least, from his world and all those that knew him. His will, however, was still strong.
You say that I shall never see my own people, but that is more than you or I or anyone else can possibly know." A flicker of admiration appeared in the eyes of Heraka, but his voice was even and cold as he said: "It is well that you have a light heart, because to-morrow will be as to-day to you, and the next day will be the same, and the next and many more." The Sioux chief spoke the truth.
Inmutanka removed the last bandage from Will's head, which could now take care of itself, and as the Sioux permitted him to share on equal terms with themselves, he ate with a great appetite. Heraka regarded him intently. "Do you know where you are, Wayaka?" he asked. "No," replied Will, carelessly, "I don't. Neither am I disturbed about it.
So he wisely made no such trial, and seemed to settle down into a sort of content. He saw no more then of Heraka, who had evidently gone away to the great war with the white men, but he saw a good deal of the chief of the village, an old man named Xingudan, which in Sioux meant the Fox.
Heraka stood a few feet away, gazing at him maliciously, but during that long and terrible ride, the prisoner had taken several resolutions, and first of them was to appear always bold and hardy among the Indians. He stretched his arms and legs to restore the circulation, and also took a few steps back and forth.
The famous chief, Gall, who planned Custer's defeat, and who led the forces upon the field, had the head of a Jupiter, and Will felt now as he stared up at Heraka that he had never beheld a more imposing figure. The gaze of the man that met his own was stern and denunciatory. The lad felt that he was about to be charged with a great crime, and that the charge would be true.
Everything was magnified, made more vivid, more intense, and his joy, captive though he was, was so keen that he could not keep from showing it. "You find it pleasant to live," said Heraka. "Yes," replied the lad frankly, "I don't mind admitting to you that I like living. And I like seeing, too, in the bright sunshine, when I've been so long without it.
There was no saddle, but as he was used to riding bare-backed he could endure it indefinitely. Then the chief did a surprising thing, binding a piece of soft deerskin over Will's eyes so tightly that not a ray of light entered. "Why do you do that, Heraka?" asked the lad. "That you may not see which way you go, nor what is by the path as you ride.
You are miles from where you were taken, and you are the prisoner of these warriors of the Dakota whom I lead." Will knew well enough that the Sioux called themselves in their own language the Dakota, and that the chief would take a pride in so naming them to him. "The Dakotas are a great nation," he said. Heraka nodded, not as if it were a compliment, but as a mere statement of fact.
But Heraka, strong though his mind was, felt a touch of superstitious awe, and looking up at the heavens, all blue though they were, almost believed that he saw in them a star looking down at Wayaka, the prisoner. "Wayaka may have a star," he said, "but it will be of no avail, because the stars of the Sioux, being so much the stronger, will overcome it." "We shall see," replied the lad.
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