"What is the use of more killing?" he said. "It will only madden the long knives. They will come after us till they have destroyed us."
"I have decided," Black Hawk said. "We must fight back. We must be avenged. They stole our land. They burned Saukenuk. They burned Prophet's Town. We asked them for peace, and they killed us. Black Hawk will show them that they cannot do this and go unpunished."
"So it shall be!" the Winnebago Prophet growled.
And after that the long knives in their turn will have to be avenged.
Hopelessness lay like a heavy sodden blanket on White Bear. He saw the old warrior's determination, and said no more.
He could only pray that Earthmaker spare those he loved. On both sides.
Black Hawk stood up. "Let us go back to our camp."
Wolf Paw said, "Father, I want to stay here till tomorrow with a party of warriors. There are dead long knives scattered all over the prairie, but we cannot find them in the dark. In the morning we can take their scalps and their weapons."
His words stopped White Bear as he was about to turn away from the fire. Otto Wegner might still be hiding in that hollow tree, waiting for dawn.
Hurriedly, White Bear said, "I, too, will stay. I will help Wolf Paw search for the dead."