“Again you show signs of intelligence, Dagaeoga,” he said.  “As you have learned to be a warrior, perhaps you can learn to be a medicine man also, not the medicine man who deals with spirits, but one who heals.  Now, as you have done your part, I shall do mine.”

“What do you mean, Tayoga?”

“I will resolve to be well.  You know that among my people the healers held in highest honor are those who do not acknowledge the existence of any disease at all.  The patient is sick because he has not willed that he should be well.  So the medicine man exerts a will for him and by reciting to himself prayers or charms drives away the complaint which the sick man fancies that he has.  Now, I do not accept all their belief.  A bullet has gone through my shoulder, and I know it.  Nothing can alter the fact.  Yet I do know that the will has great control over the nerves, which direct the body, and I shall strengthen my will as much as I can, and make it order my body to get well.”

Robert knew that what he said was true.  Already the Iroquois were, and long had been, practicing what came to be known much later among the white people as Christian Science.

“Try to sleep, Tayoga,” he said.  “I know the power of your will.  If you order yourself to sleep, sleep you will.  I have your rifle and mine, and if the enemy should come I think I can hold ’em off.”

“They will not come,” said Tayoga, “at least, not today nor in the night that will follow.  They are so busy with the Great Bear and the Mountain Wolf and Daganoweda that they will not have time to hunt among the hills for the two who have sought refuge here.  What of the skies, Dagaeoga?  What do they promise?”

Robert, standing in the entrance, took a long look at the heavens.

“Rain,” he replied at last; “I can see clouds gathering in the west, and a storm is likely to come with the night.  I think I hear distant thunder, but it is so low I’m not sure.”

“Areskoui is good to us once more.  The kindness of his heart is never exhausted.  Truly, O Dagaeoga, he has been a shield between us and our enemies.  Now the rain will come, it will pour hard, it will sweep along the slopes, and wash away any faint trace of a trail that we may have left, thus hiding our flight from the eyes of wandering warriors.”

“All that’s true, and now that you’ve explained it to your satisfaction, you obey me, exercise your will and go to sleep.  I’ve recovered my rulership, and I mean to exercise it to the full for the little time that it may last.”

Tayoga obeyed, composing himself in the easiest attitude on his blanket and bed of leaves, and he exerted his will to the utmost.  He wished sleep, and sleep must come, yet he knew that the fever was still rising in his veins.  The shock and loss of blood from the great musket ball could not be dismissed by a mere effort of the mind, but the mind nevertheless could fight against their effects and neutralize them.