hin a couple of hundred yards, they could plainly hear the green
wood crackling in the full stillness of evening. A faint odour of
broiled venison came pleasingly to their nostrils, and then three
figures were plainly discerned round the fire.
Between the spot occupied by the Osages and the hostile camp lay a
rough piece of ground, full of holes and natural ditches. Across this
the three friends began to crawl, holding their breath, and clutching
their deadly weapons, while their hearts beat with anxiety lest their
victims should escape. Half the distance was passed over, and still
more strongly was the cooking made evident to the hungry senses of the
creeping Osages. Still the unconscious warriors moved not, but kept
their backs turned to the approaching foe. They were evidently eating,
and holding converse at intervals. At length, as the friends came still
nearer, they appeared to finish their meal, and sunk gradually on the
leafy ground to rest. The Osages breathed more freely, and advanced
with less caution, until at length, when within half-a-dozen yards,
they rose, gave the terrific war-whoop, and leaped madly upon the camp.
It was vacant--their victims had escaped. The friends, amazed, were
about to fly from their dangerous proximity to the light, when three
distinct laughs were heard.
The Osages stood immovable, gazing at one another with a grim,
half-angry, half-comic expression, and ere they could speak, three
maidens disguised as warriors stood meekly one before each brave, a
horse's tail in one hand, and the other trophies in the other. The
friends tried their utmost to look angry; but the countenances of the
girls were so meek, and yet so malicious, that the gravity of the
braves was overcome, and they laughed heartily at the conclusion of
their expected deadly struggle.
The girls then explained that, for reasons of their own, disapproving
of the celibacy of the three friends, they had resolved to excite their
admiration and interest, that they had followed them immediately after
their departure, had crept on them in the night, and divested them of
their crests, &c., and played them every other trick which has been
recorded in this legend. The warriors listened, and when they narrated
how they had saved their lives in the ravine, seemed each struck with
the same sudden conviction; namely, that the lives thus preserved
belonged to the preservers, and at once made public their opinion. The
damsels laugh
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