"She would look different," he announced. "Who would not look different after death? Shall I look the same an hour hence? Yes, she is different—and yet like the Gahano who was. And in truth did you find the Land of Lost Souls, Tawannears?"
'Twas Corlaer who answered, speaking with a resonant ease that so oddly became him when using an Indian dialect instead of English.
"It was all exactly as foretold in the legends," he said. "This maiden had come there direct from the custody of the Great Spirit. She was delivered in charge of him who was Jouskeha. Ataentsic was not willing to give her up, but Jouskeha aided us and we took her by force, the Great Spirit aiding us."
That was a long speech for the Dutchman. I felt myself called upon to support him.
"If that was not the Land of Lost Souls," I declared, "then the legends of the Hodenosaunee are a mockery."
"Yo-hay!" cried Donehogaweh, and he heaved himself to his haunches. "Welcome back to my lodge, Gahano, although you go from it to——"
He choked and fell dead.
"Woe! Woe!" wept Guanaea. "The pine-tree is fallen! The light is clouded. In my lodge now all is darkness and despair!"
Tawannears caught her hand.
"But see, you who are almost my mother," he said. "I have brought back to you the daughter who was lost to you. We will be son and daughter to you in your loneliness."