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without concerted plan, they would all be cut off. Fortunately my ruse succeeded. I thought some of our rascally Iroquois might have sprung this scheme, and investigated the matter afterward, but found no light on the subject."

"Oh," said Whitman, "I know all about it."

"You do, Doctor?" ejaculated the governor.

"Yes, and I have known it for two years."

"You have known it for two years and have told me nothing! Pray, who is at the bottom of this mischief? Who is making you trouble? If it is a graceless Iroquois I will tie him to the twelve-pounder and give him a dozen."

Dr. Whitman saw in fancy the irate governor already in quest of a guilty Iroquois and said: "No, it is not an Iroquois. His name is Thomas Hill."

Dr. McLoughlin knit his brows in thought, gazing at Whitman. "We have no one by that name in our service," said Dr. McLoughlin.

"No, it is Tom Hill, the Delaware Indian, educated at Dartmouth College in the States. He has urged the Indians to allow no Americans to settle on their lands my Cayuses are greatly agitated over the matter. I have told them white men will pay them for their lands, but they no longer believe me. I think, however, the trouble will blow over and they will set to work again. Some of my faithful Cayuses met us at Fort Hall, others at the Grande Ronde. The immigrants owe a great debt to the sub-chief Sticcas."

"Doctor, take the advice of a friend come down to Fort Vancouver. Some one has been exciting those Indians, and the consequences may be immediate and awful. You know while you were gone we had a gre