hair upon
her head he will burn a Bannock warrior at the stake. Go, and be quick, lest my war-party overtake you on the trail."
The Bannock left without a word, taking the trail across the prairie toward the land of his tribe.
"The gift was given, but there was that given with it that made it bitter. And now may I bury this dead body?"
"It is only a Bannock; who cares what is done with it?" replied Snoqualmie. "But remember, my debt is paid. Ask of me no more gifts," and the chief turned abruptly away.
"Who will help me bury this man? " asked Cecil. No one replied; and he went alone and cut the thongs that bound the body to the stake. But as he stooped to raise it, a tall fine-looking man, a rene gade from the Shoshones, who had taken no part in the torture, came forward to help him. Together they bore the corpse away from the camp to the hill side; together they hollowed out a shallow grave and stretched the body in it, covering it with earth and heaping stones on top, that the cayote might not dis turb the last sleep of the dead.
When they returned to the camp, they found a war- party already in the saddle, with Snoqualmie at their head, ready to take the Bannock trail. But before they left the camp, a runner entered it with a sum mons from Multnomah calling them to the great council of the tribes on Wappatto Island, for which they must start on the morrow.
