I came by land."
I rose on my elbow, careless of my shoulder. "How could you kill the
Indian? You had no weapon."
Pierre stretched out his arms, knotted like an oak's branches, and
illustrated. "I hugged him. Once I broke the ribs of a bear."
I lay and wagged my head like an old man who hears of warlocks and
witch charms, and knows the tales to be true. The stupefying
simplicity of it! If you want a thing, take it. Pierre wanted to
follow me, so he killed his guard and came. That was all there was of
it. I looked at him long, my head still wagging. He had done this
sort of thing before. I had never understood it. It was this that I
meant when I had called Pierre, dull of wit as he seemed, the most
useful of my men.
I lay all day on my pallet, and Outchipouac served me with his own
hands.
"It is thus that we treat those whom we delight to honor," he said, and
he held the gourd to my lips and wiped my face with a square of linen
that some trader had left in camp. He would give me no solid food, but
dosed me with brewed herbs and great draughts of steaming broth. The
juggler looked into the lodge and would have tried his charms on me,
but Outchipouac sent him away.
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