"Killing more innocent men and women and children?" Her teeth and eyes gleamed in the faint light within the wickiup. Her words left a hollow ache in his chest, but he went on speaking doggedly. "When he comes back, I'll go to him. Meanwhile, ask your God to help you be brave." She let go of his arm abruptly. "What do you know about my God, with your paint and your feathers and your magic wand?" Her words hurt, and he was about to answer angrily, but he told himself she was half mad with terror and grief. "Because I have these things I can help you," he said gently. "But I want so much to know what happened at Victor. Can you bear to tell me?" She took his arm again. "I'd just gotten dressed to go out and feed the animals--when I saw the Indians riding toward our house. So many of them! I knew right away. I ran into the house and woke Father. By the time they got to the house he was standing in the doorway. He never even got his rifle loaded, Auguste. Before he could move there was an arrow in his chest." White Bear knew that Reverend Hale had never liked him; but he was Nancy's father, and to see her father killed--how that must hurt her! "He was a good man," he said. "He never did harm to our people. It is wrong that he died." Nancy went on, sobbing softly. "I must have fainted. I remember a ride, I was thrown over the back of a horse, then we were at Victoire. Auguste, they--they just overran Victoire." "Did anyone get away?" "I think the people at Victoire must have seen our church and the farms burning, so they had some warning. I couldn't see much. I was left tied on the horse while they attacked. I did see them chase one woman and run a spear through her. It was over very quickly. They set fire to Victoire." White Bear swallowed hard. He saw the chateau with its magnificent hall and its great sweeping roof. There he had lived and learned so much from Grandpapa and Father. Their hopes, their lives, had gone into that great house. And the men and women of Victoire, kindly, cheerful hard-working people--Marchette Perrault, Registre and Bernadette Bosquet. They may not have tried to stop Raoul from seizing the estate, but they had, most of them, loved Elysee and Pierre and Auguste de Marion. The pain in his chest spread till it seemed to fill his whole world, hammering at him inside and out. Nancy said, "Then they rode on to Victor, taking me with them." He choked as he asked, "Did they burn Victor down too?" "Yes, as they left." A voice seemed to echo inside him like a scream in a huge, empty hall. _Nicole! Frank! Grandpapa!_ "Can you tell me--my family--were any of them hurt?" Nancy said, "I think the people at Victor got into the trading post before the Indians got there. There were men on the palisade shooting at the Indians. The leader, the one with the red crest on his head, tied me to a tree. I had to watch it all." "He is called Wolf Paw. He is Black Hawk's son."