e who had lost their front tooth, he could not
understand such French as the two Scotchmen spoke, nor, indeed, as some
Cherokees spoke, with their front tooth out.

Savanukah, seated on the rug an expression of poignant mortification on
his face, his lips fast closed over the missing tooth, only muttered
disconsolately, in his mingled French and Cherokee jargon, "_C'est
dommage! Sac-lle bleu! Noot-te![J] Ugh! en verite--O-se-u!_"[K]

Willinawaugh, pausing merely for effect, continued. He himself was not
an interpreter, to be sure; he was a Cherokee war-captain, with a great
reputation to sustain. He had captured the prisoner, and it ill accorded
with his honor to yield him to another.

"_Cho-eh!_"[L] said Atta-Kulla-Kulla, softly.

And Stuart became aware, with a start that almost dislocated his
pinioned arms, that it was the transfer of his custody, the purchase of
himself, over which they were bargaining.

"_Nankke--soutare_,"[M] urged Atta-Kulla-Kulla.

Again Willinawaugh shook his head. Was he some slight thing,--_seequa,
cheefto_, an opossum, a rabbit? "_Sinnawah na wora!_"[N] he cried
sonorously. For months, he said, he had besieged that man in his great
stronghold of Fort Loudon. Like a panther he had watched it; like a
spider he had woven his webs about it; like a wolf by night he had
assaulted it; like a hawk he had swooped down upon it and had taken it
for the Cherokee nation; and it was a small matter if he, who spoke
French so well, had not comprehended an Englishman who spoke French
like an unknown tongue, and had let him pass, being deceived!

Would the great chief, whose words in whatever language were of
paramount importance, accept a money price?

As several gold pieces rolled out on the buffalo rug, the wrinkles so
gathered around Willinawaugh's eyes that those crafty orbs seemed
totally eclipsed. He wagged his head to and fro till "him top-feathers"
temporarily obliterated the squad of henchmen behind him, in woe that he
could not take the money, yet not in indecision.

For lo, he said, who had done so much as he, whose prestige had been
touched for a trifle, whose best-beloved brother, Savanukah, had
maligned him--for the sake of an Englishman who could not speak French
so that it could be understood. He had let that Englishman pass--it was
a small matter, and if any had sustained harm it was he himself--for the
English brother in the French squaw's dress had escaped through his
lines, and