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"Everybody's eyes were on the rod but mine and Opata's, and as I saw Taku straighten to throw, I lifted my voice in the dark and trumpeted, 'Snake! Snake! Taku leaped, but he knew my voice and he was not so frightened as the rest of them, who began falling on their faces.
He had his own and Taku-Wakin's, for Taku had never dared to ask it back again, and the chief of the Turtle clan was Opata's man. "'He tells the people that my Stick will not talk to me any more. But how can it talk, Arrumpa, when you have nothing to tell it? "'Patience, I said. 'If we press the cows too hard they will break back the way they have come, and that will be worse than waiting.
"The moment he had sight of Opata's face he knew that whatever the chief had meant to do, he did not have his father's Stick. Taku caught up his own and twirled it, and finally he hid it under his coat, for if any one had handled it he could have seen that this was not the Stick of Long-Hand, but fresh-peeled that season.
Apunkewis, who had the two villages under Black Rock and was a friend of Long-Hand, told him that there would be a Sign. "'There will, said Taku-Wakin, 'but I shall bring it. He knew that Opata meant mischief, but he could not guess what. All the way to Opata's his thought went round and round like a fire-stick in the hearth-hole. When he heard the drums he flared up like a spark in the tinder.
Earlier in the evening there had been a Big Eating at Opata's, and now the men were dancing. "'Eyah, eyah! they sang. "Taku-Wakin whirled like a spark into the ring. 'Eyah, eyah! he shouted, "'Great are the people They have found a sign, The sign of the Talking Rod! Eyah! My people! "He planted it full in the firelight where it rocked and beckoned. 'Eyah, the rod is calling, he sang.
"He'd been a long time working out the trail through the canebrake," said Arrumpa, "making a Talking Stick as his father had taught him; one ring for a day's journey, one straight mark for so many man's paces; notches for turns. When he could not remember his father's marks he made up others. When he came to his village again he found they had all gone over to Opata's.
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