“Now that your stomach is full an’ strong to stand grief, I will show you what the Feather an’ Yellow Face do while you are gone; for they make medicine against you an’ reach out to kill you an’ take your life.” Moh-Kwa then turned over a great stone with his black paws an’ took out of a hole which was under the stone, a looking glass. Moh-Kwa gave Strike Axe the looking glass an’ said, “Look; for there you shall see the story of what the Feather an’ the wicked Yellow Face do.”
Strike Axe looked, an’ saw that Yellow Face was wrapping up a log in a blanket. When he had done this, he belted it with the belts of Strike Axe; an’ then he put on its head the war-bonnet of Strike Axe which hung on the lodge pole. An’ now that it was finished, Yellow Face said the log in the blanket an’ wearing the belts an’ war-bonnet was Strike Axe—as Strike Axe saw truly in the looking glass—an’ Yellow Face stood up the log in its blanket an’ belts an’ war-bonnet, an’ made his bow ready to kill it with an arrow. As Yellow Face did these things, the Feather stood watching him with a smile on her face while the blood-hope shone in her eyes; for she had eaten the snake’s heart an’ all her spirit was black.
Strike Axe saw what went on with the Feather an’ Yellow Face, an’ told it as the glass told it, word for word to Moh-Kwa, the Wise Bear, who sat by his side to listen.
Then Moh-Kwa, when he knew that now Yellow Face with three arrows in his left hand was stringing a bow to shoot against the log which he had dressed up an’ named “Strike Axe,” said there was little time to be lost; an’ Moh-Kwa hurried Strike Axe to the round deep spring of clear water which was in the cavern, an’ told him to stand on the edge of the spring an’ look hard in the looking glass an’ take sharp notice just as Yellow Face was to shoot the arrow against the log.
“An’ you must dive in the spring when Yellow Face shoots,” said Moh-Kwa to Strike Axe; “you must dive like the loon dives when you shoot at him on the river.”
Strike Axe looked hard in the looking glass like Moh-Kwa said, an’ dived in the spring when the arrow left the bow of Yellow Face.
When he came up, he looked again in the glass an’ saw that Yellow Face had missed the log. Yellow Face had a half-fear because he had missed, an’ Strike Axe looking in Moh-Kwa’s glass could see the half-fear rising up as a mist in his eyes like a morning fog lifts up from the Yellowstone. Also, the Feather stood watching Yellow Face, an’ her eyes, which were grown hard an’ little an’ bright, like a snake’s eyes, showed that she did not care what happened only so that it was evil.
But Moh-Kwa told Strike Axe to still watch closely, an’ would not let his mind pull up its pickets an’ stray; because Yellow Face would shoot twice more with the arrows which were left; an’ he must be quick an’ ready each time to dive like the loon dives, or he would surely die by the log’s wound.
Strike Axe, because he had eaten the fish an’ smoked, an’ had a full stomach an’ was bold an’ steady with a heart made brave with much food, again looked hard in the glass; an’ when the second arrow left the bow of Yellow Face he dived sharply in the spring like a loon; an’ when he came up an’ held the looking glass before his eyes he saw that Yellow Face had missed the log a second time.
An’ now there was a whole-fear in the eyes of Yellow Face—a white fear that comes when a man sees Pau-guk, the Death, walk into the lodge; an’ the hand of Yellow Face trembled as he made ready his last third arrow on the bow. But in the eyes of the Feather shone no fear; only she lapped out her tongue like the snake does, with the black pleasure of new evil at the door.