"You should have sent a guard of Ottawas with your wife and Starling."
"They were all Ottawas."
"No, they were more than half Hurons. I counted."
I jammed my teeth together and tried to think. I had just said that the west was calling me, that I was untrammeled. Untrammeled! Why, I was enmeshed, choked by conflicting duties. I put my head back, and breathed hard.
"Father, are you sure? Cadillac himself saw to it that they were all
Ottawas."
The priest stepped forward and wiped his handkerchief across my face. It was wet. "My son, take this more calmly. Cadillac does not know one Indian from another. Does this mean harm?"
I shook the sweat from my fingers. "I do not know what it means. But
I must go west. I must. Hundreds of men depend on me. Father
Carheil?"
"Yes, my son."
"I bound you once on this very spot. May I bind you again?"
"With promises?"