arty. A grim smile lighted his visage, when he found that, in point
of numbers, his own band was greatly the superior. Notwithstanding this
advantage, however, there were other points of inequality, which would
probably have a tendency to render his success, in the approaching
conflict, exceedingly doubtful. His people were the inhabitants of a
more northern and less hospitable region than their enemies, and were
far from being rich in that species of property, horses and arms, which
constitutes the most highly prized wealth of a western Indian. The band
in view was mounted to a man; and as it had come so far to rescue, or
to revenge, their greatest partisan, he had no reason to doubt its being
composed entirely of braves. On the other hand, many of his followers
were far better in a hunt than in a combat; men who might serve to
divert the attention of his foes, but from whom he could expect little
desperate service. Still, his flashing eye glanced over a body of
warriors on whom he had often relied, and who had never deceived him;
and though, in the precise position in which he found himself, he felt
no disposition to precipitate the conflict, he certainly would have had
no intention to avoid it, had not the presence of his women and children
placed the option altogether in the power of his adversaries.

On the other hand, the Pawnees, so unexpectedly successful in their
first and greatest object, manifested no intention to drive matters to
an issue. The river was a dangerous barrier to pass, in the face of a
determined foe, and it would now have been in perfect accordance with
their cautious policy, to have retired for a season, in order that their
onset might be made in the hours of darkness, and of seeming security.
But there was a spirit in their chief that elevated him, for the moment,
above the ordinary expedients of savage warfare. His bosom burned with
the desire to wipe out that disgrace of which he had been the subject;
and it is possible, that he believed the retiring camp of the Siouxes
contained a prize, that began to have a value in his eyes, far exceeding
any that could be found in fifty Teton scalps. Let that be as it might,
Hard-Heart had no sooner received the brief congratulations of his band,
and communicated to the chiefs such facts as were important to be known,
than he prepared himself to act such a part in the coming conflict,
as would at once maintain his well-earned reputation, and gratify his