Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/178

164 interpreter, inquired as to his health and contentment. On the latter occasion David had begged to be given his liberty and the  powwow had answered:

“Great Sachem say by and by he give you guide and send you back safe.”

“And why not now?” David had asked boldly.

The medicine man shook his head. “Bad Indians catch um now. Kilbum. Not safe you go now. By and by you go.”

And with that promise he had perforce to content himself.

Truth it is that David had by now come to accept his lot with fair grace. Indeed, had it not been for the thought of the sorrow  which his father was put to and for the uncertainty as to his ultimate fate, David might  have found real enjoyment with his captors. There was much to interest him. He was fast learning their language and fast coming  to a better and more sympathetic understanding of their ways of life and of thought. Woosonametipom he could never like, but there were others for whom he had a friendly  feeling: Sequanawah and John and a certain gray-locked old man named Quinnapasso and others. And, he believed, these