measures accordingly, and awaited the result with a resignation and calmness
that were characteristics of the individual.
    In the mean time the Siouxes (for the sagacity of the old man was not
deceived in the character of his dangerous neighbors) had terminated their
council, and were again dispersed along the ridge of land as if they sought some
hidden object.
    »The imps have heard the hound!« whispered the trapper, »and their ears are
too true to be cheated in the distance. Keep close, lad, keep close; down with
your head to the very earth, like a dog that sleeps.«
    »Let us rather take to our feet, and trust to manhood,« returned his
impatient companion.
    He would have proceeded, but feeling a hand laid rudely on his shoulder he
turned his eyes upward, and beheld the dark and savage countenance of an Indian
glooming full upon him. Notwithstanding the surprise and the disadvantage of his
attitude, the youth was not disposed to become a captive so easily. Quicker than
the flash of his own gun, he sprang upon his feet, and was throttling his
opponent with a power that would soon have terminated the contest, when he felt
the arms of the trapper thrown around his body, confining his exertions by a
strength very little inferior to his own. Before he had time to reproach his
comrade for this apparent treachery, a dozen Siouxes, were around them, and the
whole party were compelled to yield themselves as prisoners.
 

                                   Chapter IV

 - »With much more dismay
 I view the fight, than those that make the fray.«
                                           The Merchant of Venice, III.ii.61-62.
 
The unfortunate bee-hunter and his companions had become the captives of a
people, who might, without exaggeration, be called the Ishmaelites of the
American deserts. From time immemorial, the hands of the Siouxes had been turned
against their neighbors of the Prairies, and even at this day, when the
influence and authority of a civilized government are beginning to be felt
around them, they are considered a treacherous and dangerous race. At the period
of our tale, the case was far worse; few white men trusting themselves in the
remote and unprotected regions where so false a tribe was known to dwell.
    Notwithstanding the peaceable submission of the trapper, he was quite aware
of the character of the band into whose hands he had fallen. It would have been
difficult, however, for the nicest judge to have determined whether fear, policy
or resignation formed the secret motive of the old man, in permitting himself to
be plundered, as he did,