"Senamee, from you, a chief of the Shawnee tribe and of the noble Manahoac blood also, have lies issued forth to-day. Nay, start not, but hear me; I will maintain my words with my arm later. From you, I say, have lies issued forth; nay, worse; not only were they lies, but you knew that they were lies and yet coldly spake them." "I will kill you," hissed Senamee, "kill you with my own hand." "So be it," answered the other, "if you have the power, but the Bear is not weak." "Lies," he went on, "lies knowingly told when you said that I opposed you and was jealous of your rule and authority. For you know well such words can have no truth in them. In my wigwam hang more scalps than in yours, the scalps of Cherokees who dispute the mountains with us, of Yamasees who dwell near unto the deep waters, of Muskogees; ay, even of the fierce Southern Seminoles who dwell in the tents of the blood-stained poles. And in my veins runs blood as pure as yours, while I yield not to you as my ruler, but as my equal only, except in years. But let this pass; later on you shall kill me or I you. Now, there is other killing to be done. For not only has this man," pointing to Buck, who was now showing some other tricks, truly marvellous, to the Indians, "who is by his own word a slave, proved to you that the jugglings of the false medicine man are no miracles, but things which slaves can do; but also have I to add my word against him. And, oh! my people," he said, turning round and addressing all there, "you, my kinsmen and friends of the Shawnees, the Manahoac, and the Doeg tribes, what will you say shall be done to the false priest, the pale-faced slave, who has imposed on us, when I tell you all? When I tell you that, in this white woman's house, I heard him speak of us who have sheltered him and succoured him, as 'credulous red fools'--as 'credulous red fools,' those were his words. And more," he went on, putting forth his arm with a gesture as though to stay the angry murmurs that now arose, while Roderick St. Amande sat shaking with fear in his seat, "the dark maiden here, the sister of the white woman, denounced him to his face and before me, though he knew not I heard. She taunted him with having had his lost ear smitten off by his owner--the ear that he told us often his father, the Sun God, took from him so that he should be less than he--oh! fools that we were to believe it! And--and she called him 'thief' and 'lover of fire waters' and 'cowardly, crawling dog'--think of it, oh! my kinsmen; the Shawnee warriors and the Manahoacs and the Doegs to be imposed on by such as this! A slave, a thief, a drunkard, a cowardly dog! Think of it! Think of it! And for me, Anuza, worse, far worse than this, for at his commands have I wrecked the house in which he who gave me life was tended and succoured; at his commands have I made war on and injured the child's child of her who succoured him."