let them light their
fires and sleep with warm feet. When the sun comes again I will speak to
you."

A low murmur, but one that was clearly indicative of dissatisfaction,
passed among the attentive listeners, and served to inform the old man
that he had not been sufficiently wary in proposing a measure that he
intended should notify the travellers in the brake of the presence of
their dangerous neighbours. Mahtoree, however, without betraying, in the
slightest degree, the excitement which was so strongly exhibited by his
companions, continued the discourse in the same lofty manner as before.

"I know that my friend is rich," he said; "that he has many warriors
not far off, and that horses are plentier with him, than dogs among the
red-skins."

"You see my warriors, and my horses."

"What! has the woman the feet of a Dahcotah, that she can walk for
thirty nights in the prairies, and not fall! I know the red men of the
woods make long marches on foot, but we, who live where the eye cannot
see from one lodge to another, love our horses."

The trapper now hesitated, in his turn. He was perfectly aware that
deception, if detected, might prove dangerous; and, for one of his
pursuits and character, he was strongly troubled with an unaccommodating
regard for the truth. But, recollecting that he controlled the fate of
others as well as of himself, he determined to let things take their
course, and to permit the Dahcotah chief to deceive himself if he would.

"The women of the Siouxes and of the white men are not of the same
wigwam," he answered evasively. "Would a Teton warrior make his wife
greater than himself? I know he would not; and yet my ears have heard
that there are lands where the councils are held by squaws."

Another slight movement in the dark circle apprised the trapper that
his declaration was not received without surprise, if entirely without
distrust. The chief alone seemed unmoved; nor was he disposed to relax
from the loftiness and high dignity of his air.

"My white fathers who live on the great lakes have declared," he said,
"that their brothers towards the rising sun are not men; and now I know
they did not lie! Go--what is a nation whose chief is a squaw! Are you
the dog and not the husband of this woman?"

"I am neither. Never did I see her face before this day. She came into
the prairies because they had told her a great and generous nation
called the Dahcotahs lived there, and she wished to lo