ith you all, on terms that I hope you will not find hard, but, on the
contrary, just and manly. I have only another question to ask, and that
is of the Captain; do you choose to profit by my teams in going into the
settlements, or not?"

"I hear, that some soldiers of my party are looking for me near the
villages of the Pawnees," said Middleton, "and I intend to accompany
this chief, in order to join my men."

"Then the sooner we part the better. Horses are plenty on the bottom.
Go; make your choice, and leave us in peace."

"That is impossible, while the old man, who has been a friend of my
family near half a century, is left a prisoner. What has he done, that
he too is not released?

"Ask no questions that may lead to deceitful answers," sullenly returned
the squatter; "I have dealings of my own with that trapper, that it may
not befit an officer of the States to meddle with. Go, while your road
is open."

"The man may be giving you honest counsel, and that which it concerns
you all to hearken to," observed the old captive, who seemed in no
uneasiness at the extraordinary condition in which he found himself.
"The Siouxes are a numberless and bloody-minded race, and no one can
say how long it may be, afore they will be out again on the scent of
revenge. Therefore I say to you, go, also; and take especial heed, in
crossing the bottoms, that you get not entangled again in the fires, for
the honest hunters often burn the grass at this season, in order that
the buffaloes may find a sweeter and a greener pasturage in the spring."

"I should forget not only my gratitude, but my duty to the laws, were I
to leave this prisoner in your hands, even by his own consent, without
knowing the nature of his crime, in which we may have all been his
innocent accessaries."

"Will it satisfy you to know, that he merits all he will receive?"

"It will at least change my opinion of his character."

"Look then at this," said Ishmael, placing before the eyes of the
Captain the bullet that had been found about the person of the dead Asa;
"with this morsel of lead did he lay low as fine a boy as ever gave joy
to a parent's eyes!"

"I cannot believe that he has done this deed, unless in self-defence, or
on some justifiable provocation. That he knew of the death of your son,
I confess, for he pointed out the brake in which the body lay, but that
he has wrongfully taken his life, nothing but his own acknowledgment
shall persuade me to