I needed four bodies and uncounted minds.
And I saw how my union was composed. The tribes would unite and
destroy the Senecas,--that done, it was probable they would find the
game merry, and fall upon one another.
With every hour of delay they grew harder to control. There was
jealousy between the war chiefs. I stepped on thin ice in my walks
from lodge to lodge.
But the third day brought Cadillac. We saw the blur of his canoes far
to the north, and when they came within earshot we were ranged to
receive them.
A man should know pride in his achievement,--else why is striving given
him? I looked over my warriors, rank on rank. Fierce-eyed, muscled
like panthers, they were terrible engines of war. And I controlled
them! I felt the lift of the heart that strengthens a man's will.
That is something rarer than pride; a flitting vision of the unsounded
depths of human power.
And the canoes that approached made a strange pageant. I could not in
a moment rid myself of a rooted custom; I wished the woman were there
to see. French and Indians sat side by side, so that blankets rubbed
uniforms. They were packed in close bending ranks, their bodies
crouching to the paddles, their eyes upon the shore.
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