THE SILVER BRACELET 89

that he would condemn you, a white man, to slavery.
I supposed he would treat you as an honored guest.
Had I been quick-witted then, I could have hidden
you and sent you away secretly as I am doing now. As
it is, you have narrowly escaped being sacrificed
beneath the totem pole. Had that fate been yours, I
should always have felt that it was my fault and I
could not have borne such sorrow.

“For this reason I have done what I could to aid
you to escape; for this reason I prevailed upon Shim
the Foolish One to let Toona the bear out of his pen,
so that the village would be in an uproar for a few
minutes while I climbed to the roof and dropped the
rope down through the smoke hole. Old Shim is your
savior; old Shim and the bear.

“Go, now,” she continued breathlessly, glancing
back toward the forest, “before we are discovered.
Go straight east and find the white traders upon the
Skeena River. Go quickly, that you may be far out on
the waters before the fog lifts in the morning. The
eyes of the Haidas are keen and their canoes are
swift.”

Before the man could utter a word of thanks,
Maada darted into the forest and hurried back to the
village where everything was confusion. One of the
visiting Haidas had killed the bear, not knowing that
he belonged to the head shaman and that many evil
spirits were imprisoned in his body. As a result of
his rash deed, a pitched battle between the two tribes