from you and cast you aside as the serpent casts its
skin. And you must be the most eloquent of all at
the great council; for there the arm of Multnomah
and the voice of Tohomish must bend the bad chiefs
before them."
His accents had the same undertone of arbitrary will, of inflexible determination, that had been in them when he spoke hi the council. Though the shadows fell more and more ominous and threatening across his path, to turn back did not occur to him. The stubborn tenacity of the man could not let go his settled purpose.
"Tohomish will be at the council and speak for his chief and his tribe? " asked Multnomah, in a tone that was half inquiry, half command; for the seer whose mysterious power as an orator gave him so strong an influence over the Indians must be there.
Tohomish s haggard and repulsive face had settled back into the look of mournful apathy habitual to him. He had not, since the council, attempted to change the chiefs decision by a single word, but seemed to have resigned himself with true Indian fatalism to that which was to come.
"Tohomish will go to the council," he said in those soft and lingering accents, indescribably sweet and sad, with which his degraded face contrasted so strongly. "Yes, he will go to the council, and his voice shall bend and turn the hearts of men as never before. Strong will be the words that he shall say, for with him it will be sunset and his voice will be heard
