As the crowd surged up to where the wretch sat, men and women being indiscriminately mixed, braves and warriors jostling their servants and inferiors, while their gaily-bedecked wives--for this was to have been a feast day--pushed against almost nude serving-women, the chief sprang to his feet, threw one arm about Roderick St. Amande, and, brandishing his tomahawk before their eyes, thundered forth an order to them to desist.
"Back!" he roared in his deep tones, "back, I say. What! is Senamee dead already that others usurp his place and issue orders to his people? Who is your chief? I, or Anuza, the rebel?" and he struck at two or three of the foremost with his tomahawk as he spoke.
"You are," they acknowledged, though with angry glances at him, "yet shall not the false priest shelter himself behind your shield. We will have his life in spite of you."
"His life you shall have when we are sure of his guilt. At present we have nothing but the word of Anuza, who has said I lie. But what if he has lied himself?"
"He has not lied," they called out. "He has not lied. Anuza never lies. And his words are proved. The other slave of the white woman can do more than he. He is no medicine priest. Give him to us that we may slay him."
"Not yet," answered Senamee. "Not yet. For ere I give him to you I am about to prove Anuza to be a liar in spite of your belief."
"How can you prove it?" they demanded, while Anuza himself stood motionless, his eyes fixed on his rival.
"My brethren and followers, you speak either like children who know nothing or old men who have forgotten what once they knew. Anuza has told me that I lie. To him I say the same thing. He lies. He lies out of his spite and envy of me. And have you, oh! ye children or dotards, forgotten how, when one of our race thinks thus of another, they decide who is the truthful man and who the liar?"
"We have not forgotten," they all exclaimed; "we have not forgotten. It must be by the death of one or the other. Both cannot live."
"It is well," Senamee exclaimed, "it is well. And of Anuza, the rebel, and of me your chief, one of us must die by the hand of the other. As that death is dealt out so shall it be decided what the fate of this one is," pointing to the impostor shivering by his side. "If I defeat the Bear he shall not suffer, for then it will be known that Anuza is the liar and has wrongly accused him; if Anuza slays me then must you do with the medicine chief as is his will. But," descending from his seat and advancing towards where that warrior stood, "that he will kill me I do not fear. Those of the house of Senamee dread not those of the race of the crawling Bear."