Mahtoree; he whose voice had been
given in opposition to his own wiser opinions, transfixed with an arrow,
and evidently suffering under the pangs of approaching death.

"I have been on my last war-path," said the grim old warrior, when he
found that the real owner of the animal had come to claim his property;
"shall a Pawnee carry the white hairs of a Sioux into his village, to be
a scorn to his women and children?"

The other grasped his hand, answering to the appeal with the stern
look of inflexible resolution. With this silent pledge, he assisted the
wounded man to mount. So soon as he had led the horse to the margin of
the cover, he threw himself also on its back, and securing his companion
to his belt, he issued on the open plain, trusting entirely to the
well-known speed of the beast for their mutual safety. The Pawnees were
not long in catching a view of these new objects, and several turned
their steeds to pursue. The race continued for a mile without a murmur
from the sufferer, though in addition to the agony of his body, he had
the pain of seeing his enemies approach at every leap of their horses.

"Stop," he said, raising a feeble arm to check the speed of his
companion; "the Eagle of my tribe must spread his wings wider. Let him
carry the white hairs of an old warrior into the burnt-wood village!"

Few words were necessary, between men who were governed by the same
feelings of glory, and who were so well trained in the principles of
their romantic honour. The Swooping Eagle threw himself from the back
of the horse, and assisted the other to alight. The old man raised his
tottering frame to its knees, and first casting a glance upward at the
countenance of his countryman, as if to bid him adieu, he stretched out
his neck to the blow he himself invited. A few strokes of the tomahawk,
with a circling gash of the knife, sufficed to sever the head from the
less valued trunk. The Teton mounted again, just in season to escape a
flight of arrows which came from his eager and disappointed pursuers.
Flourishing the grim and bloody visage, he darted away from the spot
with a shout of triumph, and was seen scouring the plains, as if he
were actually borne along on the wings of the powerful bird from whose
qualities he had received his flattering name. The Swooping Eagle
reached his village in safety. He was one of the few Siouxes who escaped
from the massacre of that fatal day; and for a long time he alone of the
sa