Greatly startled now have I been today
By your voice coming through the woods to this clearing;
With a troubled mind have you come
Through obstacles of every kind.
Great thanks, therefore, we give, that safely
You have arrived. Now then, together,
Let both of us smoke. For all around indeed
Are hostile powers—
Alagwa spun round. She knew what the song meant—Tecumseh was returning.
A moment later he passed her, striding onward to his lodge. His face was stern—the face of one who goes to face the great crisis of his life. Behind him came chief after chief, warrior after warrior, members of many tribes. Versed in Indian heraldry as she was, Alagwa could not read half the ensigns there foregathered.