savage cast a look on the other which, notwithstanding the dim light,
was sufficiently indicative of implacable hostility. He then stole away among
his fellows, anxious to conceal the counterfeit he had attempted to practise, no
less than the treachery he had contemplated against a fair division of the
spoils, from the man named by the trapper, whom he now also knew to be
approaching, by the manner in which his name passed from one to another in the
band. He had hardly disappeared, before a warrior of powerful frame, advanced
out of the dark circle, and placed himself before the captives with that high
and proud bearing for which a distinguished Indian chief is ever so remarkable.
He was followed by all the party, who arranged themselves around his person, in
a deep and respectful silence.
    »The earth is very large,« the Chief commenced, after a pause of that true
dignity, which his counterfeit had so miserably affected. »Why can the children
of my Great White Father never find room on it?«
    »Some among them have heard, that their friends in the Prairies are in want
of many things,« returned the trapper, »and they have come to see if it be true.
Some want, in their turns, what the red men are willing to sell, and they come
to make their friends rich, with powder and blankets.«
    »Do traders cross the big river, with empty hands!«
    »Our hands are empty because your young men thought we were tired, and they
have lightened us of our loads. They were mistaken. I am old, but I am still
strong.«
    »It cannot be. Your load has fallen in the Prairies. Show my young men the
place, that they may pick it up, before the Pawnees find it.«
    »The path to the spot is crooked, and it is night. The hour is come for
sleep,« said the trapper with perfect composure - »bid your warriors go over
yonder hill. There is water and there is wood; let them light their fires and
sleep with warm feet. When the sun comes again I will speak to you.«
    A low murmur, but one that was clearly indicative of dissatisfaction passed
among the attentive listeners, and served to inform the old man, that he had not
been sufficiently wary in proposing a measure, that he intended should notify
the travellers in the brake, of the presence of their dangerous neighbors.
Mahtoree, however, without betraying, in the slightest degree, the excitement
which was so strongly exhibited by his companions,