ce like the beat of a drum. Now and then a guttural
voice challenged from the darkness, to be instantly answered by those
in advance, and another savage glided within our narrowed vision,
scanned us with cruel and curious eyes, and fell in with the same
silent, tiger-like tread of his fellows.

It was not long that we were compelled to march thus, the gathering
warriors pressing us closer at each step; and it was well it proved so
soon ended, for the grim mockery set my nerves on edge. Yet the change
was hardly for the better. Just before reaching the spot where the
river forked sharply to the southward, we came to the upper edge of the
wigwams, and into a bit of light from their scattered fires. There
rushed out upon us a wild horde of excited savages, warriors and
squaws, who pushed us about in sheer delirium, and even struck
viciously at us across the shoulders of our indifferent guard, so that
it was only by setting my teeth that I held back from grappling with
the demons. But Heald, older in years and of cooler blood, laid
restraining hands upon my arm.

"'T is but the riff-raff," he muttered warningly. "The chiefs will
hold them back from doing us serious harm."

As he spoke, Little Sauk uttered a gruff order, and the grim warriors
on our flank drove back the jeering, scowling crowd, with fierce Indian
cursing and blows of their guns, until the way had been cleared for our
advance. We moved on for two hundred yards or more, the maddened and
vengeful mob menacing us just beyond reach of the strong arms, and
howling in their anger until I doubted not their voices reached the
distant Fort.

We came to a great wigwam of deer-skin, much larger than any I had ever
seen, with many grotesque figures of animals sketched in red and yellow
paint upon the outside, and clearly revealed by the blazing fire
without. A medicine-man of the tribe, hideous with pigment and high
upstanding hair, sat beating a wooden drum before the entrance, and
chanting wildly to a ferocious-looking horde of naked savages, many
bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, who danced around the blaze, the
leaping figures in the red glare making the scene truly demoniacal.
Little Sauk strode through the midst of them, unheeding the uproar, and
flung aside the flap of the tent.

"White Chief and Long Knife wait here," he said Sternly. "Come back
pretty soon."

There was nothing to be seen within, excepting some skins flung
carelessly upon the