He drew from his beaded pouch a black and white belt of seven rows. I took it, and, holding it in both hands, gazed attentively into his face.
"The Three Wolves listen," I said briefly.
"Then listen, noble of the noble clan. The council-fire is covered at Onondaga; but it shall burn again at Thendara. This was so from the first, as all know. The council therefore summons their brother, Onehda, as ensign of his clan. The will of the council is the will of the confederacy. Hiro! I have spoken."
"Does a single coal from Onondaga still burn under the great tree, my elder brother?" I asked cautiously.
"The great tree is at Onondaga," he answered sullenly; "the fire is covered."
Which was as much as to say that there was no sanctuary guaranteed an Oneida, even at a federal council.
"Tell them," I said deliberately, "that a belt requires a belt; and, when the Wolves talk to the Oneidas, they at Thendara shall be answered. I have spoken."
"Do the Three Wolves take counsel with the Six Bears and Turtles?" he asked, with a crafty smile.
"The trapped wolf has no choice; his howls appeal to the wilderness entire," I replied emphatically.
"But--a trapped wolf never howls, my younger brother; a lone wolf in a pit is always silent."
I flushed, realizing that my metaphor had been at fault. Yet now there was to be nothing between this red ambassador and me except the subtlest and finest shades of metaphor.
"It is true that a trapped wolf never howls," I said; "because a pitted wolf is as good as a dead wolf, and a dead wolf's tongue hangs out sideways. But it is not so when the pack is trapped. Then the prisoners may call upon the Wilderness for aid, lest a whole people suffer extermination."
"Will my younger brother take counsel with Oneidas?" he asked curiously.
"Surely as the rocks of Tryon point to the Dancers, naming the Oneida nation since the Great Peace began, so surely, my elder brother, shall Onehda talk to the three ensigns, brother to brother, clan to clan, lest we be utterly destroyed and the Oneida nation perish from the earth."
"My younger brother will not come to Thendara?" he inquired without emotion.
"Does a chief answer as squirrels answer one to another?--as crow replies to crow?" I asked sternly. "Go teach the Canienga how to listen and how to wait!"
His glowing eyes, fastened on mine, were lowered to the symbol on my breast, then his shaved head bent, and he folded his powerful arms.
"Onehda has spoken," he said respectfully. "Even a Delaware may claim his day of grace. My ears are open, O my younger brother."