How was he then to
lessen that number? and that, too, when circumstances did not seem
likely to throw any more immediately into his power, as he had once
hoped. This council must soon be over, and it would not be in his
power to send the chiefs away without enumerating the scalps of the
pale-faces present among those which were to make up the sum of
their race.
Taking the perplexity produced by the bee-hunter's necromancy, and
adding it to his concern for Margery, Peter found ample subject for
all his reflections. While the young men were dressing their bears,
and making the preparations for a feast, he walked apart, like a man
whose thoughts had little in common with the surrounding scene. Even
the further proceedings of le Bourdon, who had discovered his bee-
tree, had felled it, and was then distributing the honey among the
Indians, could not draw him from his meditations. The great council
of all was to be held that very day--there, on Prairie Round--and it
was imperative on Peter to settle the policy he intended to pursue,
previously to the hour when the fire was to be lighted, and the
chiefs met in final consultation.
In the mean time, le Bourdon, by his distribution of the honey, no
less than by the manner in which he had found it, was winning golden
opinions of those who shared in his bounty.
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