THE TWILIGHT TALE.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TWILIGHT TALE.
That eve I spoke those words again, And then she hearkened what I said.
DANTE ROSSETTL
HPHE next day the Indians had a great hunt. A
- circle of men on foot and on horseback was
drawn around a large tract of forest on the western side of the Willamette River. Gradually, with much shouting, hallooing, and beating of bushes, the circle closed upon the game within it, like the folds of a mighty serpent.
There was a prodigious slaughter, a mad scene of butchery, in which the Indians exulted like fiends. Late in the afternoon they returned to camp, stained with blood and loaded with the spoils of the chase. Snoqualmie distinguished himself by killing a large bear, and its claws, newly severed and bleeding, were added to his already ample necklace of similar trophies.
Cecil remained in the almost deserted camp. He tried in vain to talk with the few chiefs who had not gone out to join in the hunt. Missionary work was utterly impossible that day. Wallulah and the prob lem of his love filled his thoughts. His mind, aroused and burning, searched and analyzed the question upon
