Chapter 27

I worried over the old shaman’s reaction all the way to the camp. This might be precisely what Spotted Hawk needed to reject my petition. He struck me as a closed and suspicious man, although he saw to the needs of his people adequately from what I could judge.

The first thing I did on reaching the Wacky Wigwam was to dig out a spare shirt and cover my naked torso. Two messages reached me at almost the same time. I answered the summons from Spotted Hawk before I went to see Bear Paw.

The shaman invited me inside when I scratched on his tent. Entering nervously, I sat to the right of the doorway, as was expected of a polite guest. He occupied the catcu, the seat of honor. As a courtesy I endured a ritual pipe in silence, which did little to calm my anxious stomach.

“Tell me what you did before you closed his wound,” he said when our smoke was exhausted.