Children of the Frost | Page 7

live when he
does our living for us. We grow fat and like women, and we are afraid to work, and we
forget how to do things for ourselves. Let the man go, O Tantlatch, that we may be men!

I am Keen, a man, and I make my own kill!"
Tantlatch turned a gaze upon him in which seemed the vacancy of eternity. Keen waited
the decision expectantly; but the lips did not move, and the old chief turned toward his
daughter.
"That which be given cannot be taken away," she burst forth. "I was but a girl when this
Stranger Man, who is my man, came among us. And I knew not men, or the ways of men,
and my heart was in the play of girls, when thou, Tantlatch, thou and none other, didst
call me to thee and press me into the arms of the Stranger Man. Thou and none other,
Tantlatch; and as thou didst give me to the man, so didst thou give the man to me. He is
my man. In my arms has he slept, and from my arms he cannot be taken."
"It were well, O Tantlatch," Keen followed quickly, with a significant glance at Thom, "it
were well to remember that that which be given cannot be taken away."
Chugungatte straightened up. "Out of thy youth, Keen, come the words of thy mouth. As
for ourselves, O Tantlatch, we be old men and we understand. We, too, have looked into
the eyes of women and felt our blood go hot with strange desires. But the years have
chilled us, and we have learned the wisdom of the council, the shrewdness of the cool
head and hand, and we know that the warm heart be over-warm and prone to rashness.
We know that Keen found favor in thy eyes. We know that Thom was promised him in
the old days when she was yet a child. And we know that the new days came, and the
Stranger Man, and that out of our wisdom and desire for welfare was Thom lost to Keen
and the promise broken."
The old shaman paused, and looked directly at the young man.
"And be it known that I, Chugungatte, did advise that the promise be broken."
"Nor have I taken other woman to my bed," Keen broke in. "And I have builded my own
fire, and cooked my own food, and ground my teeth in my loneliness."
Chugungatte waved his hand that he had not finished. "I am an old man and I speak from
understanding. It be good to be strong and grasp for power. It be better to forego power
that good come out of it. In the old days I sat at thy shoulder, Tantlatch, and my voice
was heard over all in the council, and my advice taken in affairs of moment. And I was
strong and held power. Under Tantlatch I was the greatest man. Then came the Stranger
Man, and I saw that he was cunning and wise and great. And in that he was wiser and
greater than I, it was plain that greater profit should arise from him than from me. And I
had thy ear, Tantlatch, and thou didst listen to my words, and the Stranger Man was given
power and place and thy daughter, Thom. And the tribe prospered under the new laws in
the new days, and so shall it continue to prosper with the Stranger Man in our midst. We
be old men, we two, O Tantlatch, thou and I, and this be an affair of head, not heart. Hear
my words, Tantlatch! Hear my words! The man remains!"
There was a long silence. The old chief pondered with the massive certitude of God, and
Chugungatte seemed to wrap himself in the mists of a great antiquity. Keen looked with

yearning upon the woman, and she, unnoting, held her eyes steadfastly upon her father's
face. The wolf-dog shoved the flap aside again, and plucking courage at the quiet,
wormed forward on his belly. He sniffed curiously at Thom's listless hand, cocked ears
challengingly at Chugungatte, and hunched down upon his haunches before Tantlatch.
The spear rattled to the ground, and the dog, with a frightened yell, sprang sideways,
snapping in mid-air, and on the second leap cleared the entrance.
Tantlatch looked from face to face, pondering each one long and carefully. Then he
raised his head, with rude royalty, and gave judgment in cold and even tones: "The man
remains. Let the hunters be called together. Send a runner to the next village with word to
bring on the fighting men. I shall not see the New-Comer. Do thou, Chugungatte, have
talk with him. Tell him he may go at once, if he would go