midnight
_ '' -RSB- Long did Multnomah and his chiefs sit in council that day . Resolute were the speeches that came from all , though many secretly regretted that they had allowed Multnomah 's oratory to persuade them into declaring for the council : but there was no retreat . Across hills and canyons sped the fleet runners , on to the huge bark lodges of Puget Sound , the fisheries of the Columbia , and the crowded race-courses of the Yakima . Into camps of wandering prairie tribes , where the lodges stood like a city to-day and were rolled up and strapped on the backs of horses to-morrow ; into councils where sinister chiefs were talking low of war against the Willamettes ; into wild midnight dances of plotting dreamers and medicine-men , -- they came with the brief stern summons , and passed on to speak it to the tribes beyond . My full defiance , hate , and scorn . SCOTT . It is the day after the departure of the runners to call the great council , -- eight years since Cecil Grey went out into the wilderness .