Roger Pocock

“ Others there are of us who have ourselves been hurled by elemental passions against raw issues of life or death; and whether we be believers in Death or whether we be Christians, we shall claim that there can be no greater deed of love, no higher act of valor.
Reeling, staggering, brandishing his rifle, shouting to the Indians to come and see the fun, laughing hysterically at the man crucified, at the woman dying, No-man came in front of the cross, and at point-blank range with exact and perfect aim shot Storm through the heart, Rain through the forehead, releasing both of them. ”

“ Purity fierce as fire, anger which struck like lightning, pride ferocious, a wild heart savage as this terrific wilderness, all that had made her overwrought, hysterical, half mad, found their expression now as she crouched kneeling, her bow drawn, her arrow ready, her staring eyes waiting until the light showed the target, and then she steadied her aim directly at his heart.
Storm saw the woman he had worshiped from childhood, married in Dreamland, his wife whom now the torch revealed to him for the first time on earth—a terrible, avenging fury. ”

“ And the wolf had fled without his reward of meat:
"Surely," thought Storm, "I've been here before. Aye, in this life I've sat beside that fire."
He peered through a veil of rain into the violet gloom. "If it were only clear enough!" he thought. "There is the Apse of Ice!"
He walked to the eastward edge of the platform and looked down the hillside, precipitous, flecked with dark juniper bushes. A thousand feet below he could see a level mead where there were horses grazing, and there in the pasture close against the hill was a tipi. That was her lodge! ”

“ The tracks led down the trail, and halfway to the tipi lurched a man who carried pack and gun. Storm recognized the beaver cap, the deerskin hunting shirt, the breeches with long fringes down the seams, the long boots gone over at the heels. So there went the only white man save himself in all the Kutenais, for this was American trapper Hunt-the-girls. Evening was closing in, and down there the hearth fire made Rain's tipi glow, while a thin thread of smoke went up as from an altar. So Hunt-the-girls would seek for hospitality at the Sacred Lodge. ”

“ They are shadows, glamour, not realities like Faith or Hope or Love. A Spirit told me once that a man and a woman who love, whom death cannot set asunder, may in the end be parts of one, one Angel.
"How I do envy you two children! And have you been parted in this life you are living now down on the Earth?"
"We've never met," said Rain. "Storm is an English sailor; I live with my mother Thunder Feather, the sacred woman of the Blackfoot nation. We have our tipi in a lonely valley of the mountains, and pilgrims come to Thunder Feather to be healed when they are sick in soul or body. ”

“ But the prisoner released, the man, the spirit himself, stood as before, supported in Storm's arms, rather bewildered than hurt. "It wasn't so very bad?" Storm whispered to him.
"Why," answered the American, "you don't say I'm dead?"
"There is no death," said Storm, "except for your poor body. Come away; here is your mother waiting to take you home."
Rain pointed out the prisoner next for trial, young Crittenden. "He isn't old enough to go on the war trail," she said. "A boy, and such a dear lad! O Rising Wolf, this will awaken your soul—or your soul is dead. My man and I pray for him. ”

“ The man on the cross confronted the sun, whose ever-increasing splendor of light and heat gave him the merciful delirium of pain, mounting towards its climax. And Rain, bound to the cross with wet rawhide, felt as the lashings dried shrinking, the slowly growing agony of swollen wrists and arms, without the man's triumphant faith, or any hope either from earth or heaven, for still there was no thunder of Rising Wolf's rescuing horsemen, still no portent, still no miracle to attest that God reigned, or would avenge. ”

“ Now the four widows, resolved that the trader who represented the tribe at Fort Colville should be dressed to do them credit, had made a deerskin hunting shirt, leggings and moccasins soft as silk, golden-tawny, perfumed with wood smoke. The deep fringes about the shoulders and along the seams, whose pattering throws off snow to keep the leather dry, the decoration of porcupine quills, dyed lemon, plum bloom, indigo, and vermilion, in sacred patterns which charm away disease, wounds, or death, made this gift beautiful, the most precious that love could offer. ”

“ Thunder Feather lifted the death wail, mourning for her people.
Hiawatha sheltered Rain in his arms:
"Be brave," he said. "The bodies of our people are wasted and destroyed with strange diseases not to be healed by our medicine. Our tribes are driven from their farms, their fisheries, and their hunting grounds, crowded into the west, forced to make war against each other in order to get meat, resorting in despair to savage crimes and eating human flesh, our wild herds slaughtered, grass eaten, lands stolen, faith betrayed, until only a last remnant shall be left on the earth." ”

“ The fiery Cross is not carried very far by smug pastors who let the flame die out, but, brandished by knights-errant such as these Iroquois, it kindled the mountaineer Nez Percés, Flatheads, Cœur d'Alènes, and Pend d'Oreilles, and like a forest fire the Faith swept through the hills. Not satisfied, but craving for more light, the Nez Percés dispatched a couple of young warriors as their envoys on foot through countries held by hostile nations to visit the white men's lands, and beg the Big Father at Washington to send them Black-robes. ”

“ Before the end of this long ritual the sun had gone down behind the westward heights, the hearth fire burned low, and the Indians were huddled in their robes of elk or bison while Storm, with only his deer-skin hunting dress, felt chilled to the bones. With the covering of the pipe, Sitting Wolf ceased to be priest celebrant and was the chief, jealous, envious, with something in his leathery dark face sinister, boding. ”

“ Now, of a sudden, the whole memory of the dream glowed in his brain, and ghastly pale, sweating at the palms of the hands, and at his neck, he realized the truth. He dared not go down into that place. Even as Rain had warned him, he knew that his mother was dead. Shuddering even at the touch of the woodwork which enclosed the tomb, he closed the hatchway, then found the dinghy's painter, hauled in, and dropped into the boat.
The flood tide swept him up the estuary, and the faint shadow of the barge melted away in the mist under the frosty starlight. ”

“ He shoved the hatch aside, letting the starlight into the dark forecastle of the barge, then pulled on his boots, and scrambled up upon the white, dimly glittering frost of the deck. Stiff with cold, he flogged his arms about his body until his fingers tingled with pain, and stamped until he felt the blood returning into his numb feet. Then he went aft, and opened the cabin hatch. He took the flint and steel from his pocket, struck a brisk shower of sparks into the tinder, kindled a sulphur match, and held the blue light down. His mother lay in the bunk, stone dead. ”

“ Man-alive would see the roses there, but not the astral cross of lambent flame like carven moonlight, or the luminous figures of the priestess at rest in the arms of a martyr crucified, or the spirits Catherine and Thunder Feather, who knelt keeping vigil beside their children, or their guardian Hiawatha, descended from the middle Heavens, his glory softened lest its exceeding splendor be unbearable to people of the mists. ”

“ So the earthly body inspires passion, while Love is of the soul, burning, spiritual, not of the Earth or of Time, but of the Heavens eternal. And Death can only make the dull flame clear, shining above the level of the earth mists, in regions where Love is regnant, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal. The human love which lights our way on earth is to that mighty power, like the small twinkle in a sunlit dew-drop. ”

“ Not here, Storm. I may see her as she comes through Dreamland, but she will be asleep, carried by the Radiant Spirits. She will wake up in air which we could not breathe, light far too strong for us to bear, love which outshines the sun. ”

“ Take him as guide to the holy lodge, but as you love me, do not dine with him."
"I only said I'd think it over," answered Rising Wolf. "Indeed, he bores me. Haven't you noticed, Many Horses, that a young man or a young woman who goes in for being excessively beautiful, as this young spark does, is always the very dullest company? It's the plain fellows like you and me who have to be attractive with humor, wit or skill, learning or valor."
"How you do paint yourself!" The great chief loved a chance of poking fun at his counselor. "Now, don't blush. Your gifts are most becoming." ”

“ They who joined the procession of the cross have become a multitude and they seem to move in silence, with a sense of hushed reverence. For there is One coming through the garden to meet them. Words are like the dice which a gambler throws at random, and it is better not to attempt thoughts which no language can render.
At His coming the four Angels bow down, then lower the cross from their shoulders, but Storm and Rain are bidden to kneel at His feet that they may receive His blessing. ”

“ So Thunder Feather found him, and barred his path. She said that Rain lay up yonder at the point of death. She must come down this trail to find Storm because he had failed her, in her extremity had failed her.
The words were echoed by clanging walls, with cap and crash of thundering calls and answers, far up the heights until the sound was lost in Silence.
And in the disorder of her grief the mother railed at Storm. "You think yourself a man," she cried, "a warrior!" ”

“ The white adventurer failed to meet with jest the gale of laughter which presently drove him out of camp, leaving the Crow in possession. And the Crow was clever, distributing to the Blackfoot chiefs and medicine men gifts of axes and guns, of scarlet cloth and beads, every treasure the heart of man could covet, silks for the women, toys for the children, liquor by the keg. The Crow offered subsidy to every important leader, so long as he traded in safety with the Blackfoot nation. That night he had a wagon load of robes and a tribe drunk. ”

“ It's what Religion means. Mother's a Christian, and Rain's a heathen, but whatever sort of lamp we has to light the way, it's the same voyage. If we're good it's fine weather, if we're bad it's storms, so if a fellow has any sense at all, he'll jolly well do his best.
"That seems to be all clear."
"Have you quite finished?" asked the Padre. To look more impressive, he put horn spectacles upon his thin, high nose, but in order to see he had to glance over the top of them as he turned to bend his vision upon Storm, like a reproachful rabbit surveying a rotten turnip. ”

“ Bears are unscrupulous: at certain seasons also vegetarians because meat is rather scarce. When Rain caught a grizzly raiding the holy tipi, her thrashings tickled him so nicely that he would fetch his wife to share the fun. The wood rats, a special nuisance in that district, the porcupines, squirrels, chipmunks, polecats, all shared Rain's views on diet, treating her supplies as a public larder. So great was their enthusiasm that she and Storm were like to starve to death, rather than relinquish their principles, but for the pilgrims who brought offerings of dried fruits or vegetables. ”

“ The clerk read two or three versions which described the murderer's blood-stained belt knife as found in the barge's cabin. The last version showed the weapon as clutched in the dead man's hand.
"That's right, sir," cried the prisoner, and when the doctor tried to silence him, so much the more he protested. "Why, I seen it!"
"Prisoner," said the magistrate, "you will be wise to leave your defense to your counsel."
"Bias! Bias!" The Reverend Herbert Beaver jumped up and shrieked in his shrill voice. "Bias! The court is shielding a felon!" ”