at his gaze gave uneasiness to the
subject of his admiration, he withdrew his eyes, and laying his hand
impressively on his chest, he, modestly, answered--

"My father shall be welcome. The young men of my nation shall hunt with
his sons; the chiefs shall smoke with the grey-head. The Pawnee girls
will sing in the ears of his daughters."

"And if we meet the Tetons?" demanded the trapper, who wished to
understand, thoroughly, the more important conditions of this new
alliance.

"The enemy of the Big-knives shall feel the blow of the Pawnee."

"It is well. Now let my brother and I meet in council, that we may not
go on a crooked path, but that our road to his village may be like the
flight of the pigeons."

The young Pawnee made a significant gesture of assent and followed
the other a little apart, in order to be removed from all danger of
interruption from the reckless Paul, or the abstracted naturalist. Their
conference was short, but, as it was conducted in the sententious manner
of the natives, it served to make each of the parties acquainted with
all the necessary information of the other. When they rejoined their
associates, the old man saw fit to explain a portion of what had passed
between them, as follows--

"Ay, I was not mistaken," he said; "this good-looking young warrior--for
good-looking and noble-looking he is, though a little horrified perhaps
with paint--this good-looking youth, then, tells me he is out on the
scout for these very Tetons. His party was not strong enough to strike
the devils, who are down from their towns in great numbers to hunt the
buffaloe, and runners have gone to the Pawnee villages for aid. It would
seem that this lad is a fearless boy, for he has been hanging on their
skirts alone, until, like ourselves, he was driven to the grass for a
cover. But he tells me more, my men, and what I am mainly sorry to hear,
which is, that the cunning Mahtoree instead of going to blows with the
squatter, has become his friend, and that both broods, red and white,
are on our heels, and outlying around this very burning plain to
circumvent us to our destruction."

"How knows he all this to be true?" demanded Middleton.

"Anan?"

"In what manner does he know, that these things are so?"

"In what manner! Do you think newspapers and town criers are needed to
tell a scout what is doing on the prairies, as they are in the bosom
of the States? No gossiping woman, who hurries from house to house