with strong emphasis, the words:

"My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome."

"The Hurons love their friends the Delawares," returned Magua. "Why
should they not? they are colored by the same sun, and their just men
will hunt in the same grounds after death. The red-skins should be
friends, and look with open eyes on the white men. Has not my brother
scented spies in the woods?"

The Delaware, whose name in English signified "Hard Heart," an
appellation that the French had translated into "le Coeur-dur," forgot
that obduracy of purpose, which had probably obtained him so significant
a title. His countenance grew very sensibly less stern and he now
deigned to answer more directly.

"There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have been tracked
into my lodges."

"Did my brother beat out the dogs?" asked Magua, without adverting in
any manner to the former equivocation of the chief.

"It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the children of the
Lenape."

"The stranger, but not the spy."

"Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the Huron chief
say he took women in the battle?"

"He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent out their scouts. They have been
in my wigwams, but they found there no one to say welcome. Then they
fled to the Delawares--for, say they, the Delawares are our friends;
their minds are turned from their Canada father!"

This insinuation was a home thrust, and one that in a more advanced
state of society would have entitled Magua to the reputation of a
skillful diplomatist. The recent defection of the tribe had, as they
well knew themselves, subjected the Delawares to much reproach among
their French allies; and they were now made to feel that their future
actions were to be regarded with jealousy and distrust. There was no
deep insight into causes and effects necessary to foresee that such
a situation of things was likely to prove highly prejudicial to their
future movements. Their distant villages, their hunting-grounds and
hundreds of their women and children, together with a material part
of their physical force, were actually within the limits of the French
territory. Accordingly, this alarming annunciation was received, as
Magua intended, with manifest disapprobation, if not with alarm.

"Let my father look in my face," said Le Coeur-dur; "he will see no
change. It is true, my young men did not go out on the war-path; they
had dreams for not doing so. B