Page:Bridge of the Gods (Balch).djvu/282

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CHAPTER IV.

MULTNOMAH S DEATH-CANOE.

Gazing alone

To him are wild shadows shown, Deep under deep unknown.

DANTE ROSSETTI.

T F Multnomah was grieved at his daughter s death, if his heart sunk at the unforeseen and terrible blow that left his empire without an heir and with ered all his hopes, no one knew it; no eye beheld his woe. Silent he had ever been, and he was silent to the last. The grand, strong face only grew grander, stronger, as the shadows darkened around him; the unconquerable will only grew the fiercer and the more unflinching. But ere the moon that shone first on Wallulah s new-made cairn had rounded to the full, there was that upon him before which even his will bowed and gave way, death, swift and mysterious. And it came in this wise.

We have told how at the great potlatch he gave away his all, even to the bear-skins from his couch, re serving only those cases of Asiatic textures never yet opened, all that now remained of the richly laden ship of the Orient wrecked long ago upon his coast. They were opened now. His bed was covered with the magnificent fabrics; they were thrown carelessly over the rude walls and seats, half-trailing on the