"It is the pale-face who is a traitor to honesty. The goods which our
Great Father gave him in trust for his red children have been
destroyed. The white soldiers have forgotten their duty and have
taught us to forget ours. When the sun rises on the morrow we will
join the Black Partridge at the Fort by the great water, and we will
do what seems right in our eyes. The Black Partridge is our father
and our chief. He must not then place the good of our enemies before
the good of his own people. We have spoken."

So the great Indian, who was more noble than his clansmen, went out
from among them upon a hopeless errand. This time he did not make his
journey on foot, but upon the back of his fleetest horse; and the
medal he meant to relinquish was wrapped in a bit of deerskin and
fastened to his belt.

"Well, at least the Sun Maid will be safe. When the braves, with the
squaws and children, join their brothers at the camp, Wahneenah will
remain at Muck-otey-pokee; as should every other woman of the
Pottawatomie nation, were I as powerful in reality as I appear. It is
the squaws who urge the men to the darkest deeds. Ugh! What will be
must be. Tchtk! Go on!"

But the bay horse was already travelling at its best, slow as its pace
seemed to the Black Partridge.

CHAPTER III.

IN INDIAN ATTIRE.

Not many hours after Black Partridge turned his back upon
Muck-otey-pokee, all its fighting men, with their squaws and children,
also left it, as their chief had foreseen they would. They followed
the direction he had taken, though they did not proceed to the
garrison itself.

The camp to which they repaired was a little distance from the Fort,
and had been pitched beside the river, where was then a fringe of
cottonwoods and locusts affording a grateful shade. Here the squaws
cooked and gossiped, while their sons played the ancient games of
throwing the spear through the ring, casting the hatchet, and shooting
birds on the wing.

The braves tested their weapons and boasted of many valorous deeds; or
were else entirely silent, brooding upon mischief yet to come. Over
all was the thrill of excitement and anticipation, which the great
heat of the season seemed to deepen rather than dispel.

At the Fort, Black Partridge pleaded finally and in vain.

"We have been ordered to evacuate, and we will obey. All things are in
readiness. The stores are already in the wagons, and other wagons wait
for the sick, the women, and