After stuffing the wound with buzzard's down and giving Wolf Paw herb tea to drink, White Bear sent him on his way. The brave stumbled off, leaning on Running Deer. White Bear stood up, stretched his tired arms and legs and turned to the doorway of his wickiup. A painful moment of doubt assailed him. Was this what the way of the shaman came to, then? Trickery? Perhaps his visions, too, were only dreams. No, the White Bear spirit was real. He had seen the paw print beside his father's body. He bore the claw marks on his chest. He had to force himself to stoop down, to step through the low doorway and face Nancy. He felt tremulous within. Whatever horrors Nancy had seen and endured, she would surely blame them on him. In all his paint and ornaments he was too obviously a Sauk. And how would his efforts to protect Nancy and win her trust make Redbird feel? How could he make her truly understand what was between him and Nancy--and what was not? He was not sure that he himself understood it. In the light from the open doorway he saw Nancy, crouched on the opposite side of the round hut, trembling, still wrapped in the blanket Redbird had put on her. Redbird and Eagle Feather were sitting silently against the curving wall. He sat down facing Nancy and she drew away, shuddering. He said, "Don't be afraid of me, Nancy. I know I look strange to you. I'm the shaman, the medicine man, for my people." "Your people!" she burst out. "Your people murdered my father!" He had been afraid of that. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. "Oh, Nancy. I'm sorry." _What a ridiculous, futile thing to say._ _I must know what happened at Victor. Nancy's father was killed. Who else?_ White Bear said, "Nancy, I don't ask you to forgive me for what my people did to you. But I did try to stop all this from happening. I pray you'll let me tell you how I tried to make peace. And you are safe now as long as you stay with me." "Safe with you? Here?" She shuddered. "If I mean anything at all to you, you've got to help me to get away." His heart sank. The one thing he was sure he could not do was have her set free. "That will be hard." "I heard you talking to them. You were ordering them to leave me alone, and they did. Tell them to let me go. Auguste, I'll go mad. I'm so frightened!" She clutched at his arm. He could feel her fear pouring into his arm up to his heart. He put his hand on top of hers and held it firmly. He wanted to take her in his arms to comfort her, but Redbird's eyes were on him, and she would not understand. So he just patted Nancy's hand and released it. He told Redbird what he had been saying to Nancy. "Does she not see that the braves would kill you if you tried to set her free?" Redbird asked. "She is too frightened to see anything," he said, and turned back to Nancy. "The only man who can free you is Black Hawk. I'll try to convince him that he should, but he is away with a war party now."