he raised his
hand several times, with the palm outwards, and made several of those
other signs, which are construed into a pledge of amicable intentions
among the inhabitants of those regions. Then, as if to confirm the
sincerity of his faith, he cast his fusee to the shore, and entered
deeper into the water, where he again came to a stand, in order to see
in what manner the Pawnee would receive his pledges of peace.

The crafty Sioux had not made his calculations on the noble and honest
nature of his more youthful rival in vain. Hard-Heart had continued
galloping across the sands, during the discharge of missiles and the
appearance of a general onset, with the same proud and confident mien,
as that with which he had first braved the danger. When he saw the
well-known person of the Teton partisan enter the river, he waved his
hand in triumph, and flourishing his lance, he raised the thrilling
war-cry of his people, as a challenge for him to come on. But when he
saw the signs of a truce, though deeply practised in the treachery of
savage combats, he disdained to show a less manly reliance on himself,
than that which his enemy had seen fit to exhibit. Riding to the
farthest extremity of the sands, he cast his own fusee from him, and
returned to the point whence he had started.

The two chiefs were now armed alike. Each had his spear, his bow, his
quiver, his little battle-axe, and his knife; and each had, also, a
shield of hides, which might serve as a means of defence against a
surprise from any of these weapons. The Sioux no longer hesitated,
but advanced deeper into the stream, and soon landed on a point of the
island which his courteous adversary had left free for that purpose. Had
one been there to watch the countenance of Mahtoree, as he crossed the
water that separated him from the most formidable and the most hated of
all his rivals, he might have fancied that he could trace the gleamings
of a secret joy, breaking through the cloud which deep cunning and
heartless treachery had drawn before his swarthy visage; and yet there
would have been moments, when he might have believed that the flashings
of the Teton's eye and the expansion of his nostrils, had their origin
in a nobler sentiment, and one more worthy of an Indian chief.

The Pawnee awaited the time of his enemy with calmness and dignity. The
Teton made a short run or two, to curb the impatience of his steed, and
to recover his seat after the effort of cro