Page:Bridge of the Gods (Balch).djvu/81

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s ended."

CHAPTER II.

THE WAR-CHIEF AND THE SEER.

Cassandra s wild voice prophesying woe.

PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON.

r TVHE war-chief left the grove as soon as he had dismissed the council. Tohomish went with him. For some distance they walked together, the one erect and majestic, the other gliding like a shadow by his side.

At length Multnomah stopped under a giant cotton- wood and looked sternly at Tohomish.

"You frightened the council to-day with bad mim- aluse [death] talk. Why did you do it? Why did you bring into a council of warriors dreams fit only for old men that lie sleeping in the sun by the door of the wigwam? "

"I said what my eyes saw and my ears heard, and it was true."

"It cannot be true, for the Great Spirit has said that the Willamettes shall rule the tribes as long as the bridge shall stand; and how can it fall when it is a mountain of stone? "

A strange expression crossed Tohomish s sullen face.

"Multnomah, beware how you rest on the prophecy of the bridge. Lean not your hand on it, fo