第3章

He was saved.More than that,he was re-created.For,by signs and intimations he was quickly made aware that since the death of their late chief,their medicine-men had prophesied that his perfect successor should appear miraculously before them,borne noiselessly on the river FROM THE SEA,in the plumes and insignia of his predecessor.This mere coincidence of appearance and costume might not have been convincing to the braves had not Elijah Martin's actual deficiencies contributed to their unquestioned faith in him.Not only his inert possession of the sweat-house and his apathetic attitude in their presence,but his utter and complete unlikeness to the white frontiersmen of their knowledge and tradition--creatures of fire and sword and malevolent activity--as well as his manifest dissimilarity to themselves,settled their conviction of his supernatural origin.His gentle,submissive voice,his yielding will,his lazy helplessness,the absence of strange weapons and fierce explosives in his possession,his unwonted sobriety--all proved him an exception to his apparent race that was in itself miraculous.For it must be confessed that,in spite of the cherished theories of most romances and all statesmen and commanders,that FEAR is the great civilizer of the savage barbarian,and that he is supposed to regard the prowess of the white man and his mysterious death-dealing weapons as evidence of his supernatural origin and superior creation,the facts have generally pointed to the reverse.Elijah Martin was not long in discovering that when the Minyo hunter,with his obsolete bow,dropped dead by a bullet from a viewless and apparently noiseless space,it was NOT considered the lightnings of an avenging Deity,but was traced directly to the ambushed rifle of Kansas Joe,swayed by a viciousness quite as human as their own;the spectacle of Blizzard Dick,verging on delirium tremens,and riding "amuck"into an Indian village with a revolver in each hand,did NOT impress them as a supernatural act,nor excite their respectful awe as much as the less harmful frenzy of one of their own medicine-men;they were NOT influenced by implacable white gods,who relaxed only to drive hard bargains and exchange mildewed flour and shoddy blankets for their fish and furs.I am afraid they regarded these raids of Christian civilization as they looked upon grasshopper plagues,famines,inundations,and epidemics;while an utterly impassive God washed his hands of the means he had employed,and even encouraged the faithful to resist and overcome his emissaries--the white devils!Had Elijah Martin been a student of theology,he would have been struck with the singular resemblance of these theories--although the application thereof was reversed--to the Christian faith.But Elijah Martin had neither the imagination of a theologian nor the insight of a politician.He only saw that he,hitherto ignored and despised in a community of half-barbaric men,now translated to a community of men wholly savage,was respected and worshipped!

It might have turned a stronger head than Elijah's.He was at first frightened,fearful lest his reception concealed some hidden irony,or that,like the flower-crowned victim of ancient sacrifice,he was exalted and sustained to give importance and majesty to some impending martyrdom.Then he began to dread that his innocent deceit--if deceit it was--should be discovered;at last,partly from meekness and partly from the animal contentment of present security,he accepted the situation.Fortunately for him it was purely passive.The Great Chief of the Minyo tribe was simply an expressionless idol of flesh and blood.The previous incumbent of that office had been an old man,impotent and senseless of late years through age and disease.The chieftains and braves had consulted in council before him,and perfunctorily submitted their decisions,like offerings,to his unresponsive shrine.In the same way,all material events--expeditions,trophies,industries--were supposed to pass before the dull,impassive eyes of the great chief,for direct acceptance.On the second day of Elijah's accession,two of the braves brought a bleeding human scalp before him.Elijah turned pale,trembled,and averted his head,and then,remembering the danger of giving way to his weakness,grew still more ghastly.The warriors watched him with impassioned faces.A grunt--but whether of astonishment,dissent,or approval,he would not tell--went round the circle.

But the scalp was taken away and never again appeared in his presence.