“Warriors,” said he, “here is a bloody belt and a white one; take which you choose.  But behave like men.  Should it be the bloody path, you may leave this town in safety to join the English, and we shall then see which of us can stain our shirts with the most blood.  But, should it be the path of peace as brothers of the Big Knives and of their friends the French, and then you go to your homes and listen to the bad birds, you will then no longer deserve to be called men and warriors,—­but creatures of two tongues, which ought to be destroyed.  Let us then part this evening in the hope that the Great Spirit will bring us together again with the sun as brothers.”

So the council broke up.  White man and red went trooping into town, staring curiously at the guard which was leading the North Wind and his friends to another night of meditation.  What their fate would be no man knew.  Many thought the tomahawk.

That night the citizens of the little village of Pain Court, as St. Louis was called, might have seen the sky reddened in the eastward.  It was the loom of many fires at Cahokia, and around them the chiefs of the forty tribes—­all save the three in durance vile—­were gathered in solemn talk.  Would they take the bloody belt or the white one?  No man cared so little as the Pale Face Chief.  When their eyes were turned from the fitful blaze of the logs, the gala light of many candles greeted them.  And above the sound of their own speeches rose the merrier note of the fiddle.  The garrison windows shone like lanterns, and behind these Creole and backwoodsman swung the village ladies in the gay French dances.  The man at whose bidding this merrymaking was held stood in a corner watching with folded arms, and none to look at him might know that he was playing for a stake.

The troubled fires of the Indians had died to embers long before the candles were snuffed in the garrison house and the music ceased.

The sun himself was pleased to hail that last morning of the great council, and beamed with torrid tolerance upon the ceremony of kindling the greatest of the fires.  On this morning Colonel Clark did not sit alone, but was surrounded by men of weight,—­by Monsieur Gratiot and other citizens, Captain Bowman and the Spanish officers.  And when at length the brush crackled and the flames caught the logs, three of the mightiest chiefs arose.  The greatest, victor in fifty tribal wars, held in his hand the white belt of peace.  The second bore a long-stemmed pipe with a huge bowl.  And after him, with measured steps, a third came with a smoking censer,—­the sacred fire with which to kindle the pipe.  Halting before Clark, he first swung the censer to the heavens, then to the earth, then to all the spirits of the air,—­calling these to witness that peace was come at last,—­and finally to the Chief of the Long Knives and to the gentlemen of dignity about his person.  Next the Indian turned, and spoke to his brethren in measured, sonorous tones.