Funeral

There were five soldiers on the sick list who didn't make the raid, they were supposed to hold the fort. They sent forth the ten Kuwapi women held as slaves and Jashen was entreated.

Back at the ford Smalley and Morrison moved closer to Chief Wanica while four soldiers supporting the Captain orbited the scene at a stately trot. "God damn it Chief," he said, "you know better than to start acting like the Northern Raiders."

"What are you going to do to him?" Morrison asked.

"Take him in for cattle rustling. That'll have to do. The boy can go. The rest of these red fellows were just following orders. They got families to feed. And now they can pick themselves a new chief."

Wanica, thanks to the English lessons of his son Jashen, understood perfectly what Smalley wanted to do to him, and he decided not to go peacefully. He had the Golden Gift in his hand and pointed it right at Smalley. The black shaft leaped out with its hideous sucking sound and sliced off the head of Smalley's horse Then Smalley himself was rendered in two. That black line remained there, drinking in light and air, while five more orbiting horses and men ran right into it, including Paul Morrison.

After that Wanica used the Golden Gift to get rid of the bodies of the men and the horses he had slain. He knew the killing range of the Golden Gift was not much longer than a spear. Against a troop of whites armed with firesticks he would be helpless, and he did yet know the outcome of the battle downriver. He knew the Whites would kill him, and his son, and his warriors, and no doubt all of the women and children and old men in the camp of the People as well in retribution for him killing the white chief. There were rumors of such atrocities happening before. Then the army of the whites would have the Golden Gift. Wanica needed to think fast. Little did he know, his son Jashen had already solved the problem for him.

The pilgrims of Five Corners Free Congregation arrived at the foot of Green Dome at dusk. The four fallen warriors of the People, Left Hand, Half Yellow Face, Kill Eagle, and Hairy Moccasin, were lying on a bier of branches taken from woody shrubs. And it was on this solemn occasion when the Kuwapi People and the settlers of Mark Lange's group were first gathered all together.

In full view of everyone Chief Wanica, with words of reverence for Wakan Tanka, struck off the Golden Gift and made the bodies of his dead men disappear. The Whites were struck speechless. Coming as they did from a religious background, such a display could be nothing other than the power of God made manifest.