200 THE BIG CANOE

he listen to the chief, merely wagging his head and
cackling loudly in answer to every question. When
he had departed, the chief spoke once more about
the pipe.

“T should like to own that pipe,” he said. “Great
honor would be mine if I owned the pipe of Thaim-
shim.”

“Perhaps there is no such pipe,” suggested an-
other. “Perhaps it is just one of Shim’s stories that
he makes up in his head.”

“Perhaps,” agreed the chief. “One can never tell
how much truth there is in Shim’s stories. Still, it
might be true. Sometimes there is more truth than
we know in these strange tales of Shim’s. If there is
such a pipe anywhere, a strange pipe such as no one
here has ever seen, it must be the pipe that Thaim-
shim threw away and I should like to own it. Hand-
somely indeed would I reward any one who would
bring it to me.”

“What would he give me if I should find it?” Teka
asked one of the slaves, earnestly. Kilko overheard
and laughed.

“Teka the slave wants to know what you would
give him if he found the pipe,” he said mockingly.

“T would give him his freedom for Thaimshim’s
pipe,” replied the chief, gravely. “I would give as
much to any slave. It would be worth it.”

All that night Teka lay awake, thinking of the
chief’s promise. His freedom for a pipe—for Thaim-