The
sweat-house was no longer utilized for worldly purposes. The wise and
mighty Elijah did not attempt to reform their religion, but to preserve
it in its integrity.
That these improvements and changes were due to the influence of one man
was undoubtedly true, but that he was necessarily a superior man did
not follow. Elijah's success was due partly to the fact that he had been
enabled to impress certain negative virtues, which were part of his own
nature, upon a community equally constituted to receive them. Each was
strengthened by the recognition in each other of the unexpected value of
those qualities; each acquired a confidence begotten of their success.
"He-hides-his-face," as Elijah Martin was known to the tribe after the
episode of the released captives, was really not so much of an autocrat
as many constitutional rulers.
*****
Two years of tranquil prosperity passed. Elijah Martin, foundling,
outcast, without civilized ties or relationship of any kind, forgotten
by his countrymen, and lifted into alien power, wealth, security, and
respect, became--homesick!
It was near the close of a summer afternoon. He was sitting at the door
of his lodge, which overlooked, on one side, the far-shining levels
of the Pacific and, on the other, the slow descent to the cultivated
meadows and banks of the Minyo River, that debouched through a waste of
salt-marsh, beach-grass, sand-dunes, and foamy estuary into the
ocean.
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