they heard the war-party utter the yell which had awakened Mary. It
was fully understood by Boone, and the friendly Indian assured them
from the sound, that the Osages had just returned, and were at that
moment leaving the encampment on his trail. But he stated that they
could not find the pale-faced maiden. And he suggested to the whites a
plan of attack, which was to station themselves near the place where
he had emerged from the grove, after hiding Mary; so that when they
followed on his trail they could thus be surprised without difficulty.
This advice was adopted by Boone. The Indian then asked permission to
depart, saying he had paid the white men for sparing his life.

"Oh no!" cried Joe, when Roughgrove interpreted the Indian's request,
"keep him as a hostage--he may be cheating us."

"I do not see the impropriety of Joe's remark this time," said Glenn.

"Ask him where he will go, if we suffer him to depart," said Boone. To
Roughgrove's interrogation, the Indian made a passionate reply. He
said the white men were liars. They were now quits. Still the white
men were not satisfied. He had risked his life (and would probably be
tortured) to pay back the white men's kindness. But they would not
believe his words. He was willing to die now. The white men might
shoot him.. He would as willingly die as live. If suffered to depart,
it was his intention to steal his squaw away from the tribe, and join
the Pawnees. He would never be an Osage again.

"Go!" said Boone, perceiving by a ray of moonlight that reached the
Indian's face through the clustering branches of the trees above, that
he was in tears. The savage, without speaking another word, leaped out
into the prairie, and from the circuitous direction he pursued, it was
manifest that nothing could be further from his desire than to fall in
with the war-party.

Boone directed the sled to be abandoned, and, obedient to his will,
the party entered a small covert in the immediate vicinity of the spot
where their guide said he had emerged from the grove on his return to
meet the whites. Here the party long remained esconced, silent and
listening, and expecting every moment to see the foe. At length Boone
grew impatient, and concluding they would encamp that night under the
spreading tree, (the locality of which he was familiar with,) he
resolved to advance and surprise them. He was strengthened in this
determination by the repeated and painful surmises of Roughgrove