"May you walk this path on which we send you with courage and honor," Black Hawk said. He turned to the people. "This council is at an end." White Bear knew he could not hold back his tears any longer. He sprang to his feet and blindly hurled himself into the crowd that was already beginning to disperse. He felt a hand on his arm, but he pulled away from it. He began to run. He ran through Saukenuk, through the meadow, into the trees by the river's edge. He ran past the graves. He ran with the hard, steady stride of one carrying a message. But a messenger did not run sobbing, with tears streaming down his face. 6 In the Ancient Grove Redbird watched, an aching, empty place in her chest, as White Bear disappeared into the woods at the edge of the Rock River. "What a fool!" Water Flows Fast, standing nearby, had spoken. "The pale eyes have steel knives and blankets and big sturdy lodges that are always warm and never leak. They always have enough food. I would be happy to go live with a pale eyes if he asked me." "Is your prattling tongue never still, woman?" said her husband, Three Horses. "It was my prattling tongue that agreed to marry you." Redbird had no heart to listen to them bicker. "Let me through!" she cried, and the crowd parted before her. "Where are you going?" cried her mother. "It is shameful to run after him." She grabbed Redbird's sleeve. "All the people will laugh at you." "Let me go!" As Wind Bends Grass pulled at her, Redbird's eyes met those of Wolf Paw, standing beside his father, the war chief. He glared at her. She knew he, too, wanted to tell her not to run after White Bear. But if he showed that he cared that much, the people would make fun of _him_. She turned her back on all of them--Wind Bends Grass, Wolf Paw, Black Hawk, Owl Carver--and began to run. When she reached the riverbank she saw no sign of him. For one panic-stricken moment she thought, _Did he throw himself into the river?_ Then, downriver, she saw a canoe gliding over the glistening water. He was paddling hard and was almost out of sight around a bend. Her own small bark canoe, on which she had painted a bird's wing in red, lay a short distance down the riverbank. She pushed it into the water, jumped into the rear and seated herself in the middle. The canoe's bottom scraped over the riverbank as she pushed off with her paddle. She stayed a distance behind White Bear, just close enough to keep him in sight. He might not want her to follow him. She could not guess what was in his mind right now.