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The Indian having done up the meat we had given him, without expressing any gratitude took his departure, and was soon lost to sight in the gloom. "Miskwandib! that's the name of the `red head' or `copper-snake'," I observed. "What do you think of our friend, Pat?" "I don't altogether trust him," he answered.
The Red River on the other hand, which we are accustomed to call the Nile of Louisiana with about as much right and propriety as the Massachusetts cobbler who christened his son Alexander Cæsar Napoleon sneaks stealthily along through forest and plain, like some lurking and venomous copper-snake. Cocytus would be a far better name for it.
Altogether, Alick was satisfied that the Copper-Snake, though his name was not significant of good qualities, was an honest man, and he consequently advised him to come with his family and settle near the fort.
Copper-Snake willingly accompanied me, and I introduced him to Alick, who, after he had offered him some food and a pipe, requested him to repeat all he had said to me. He gave also further particulars which induced us fully to believe that he spoke the truth. Alick invited him to remain during the night, as he looked thin and fatigued.
"Oh don't!" cried Joe, while the cold chills ran up his back. "Who is it?" asked Glenn. "It's that copper-snake, traitor, skunk, water-dog, lizard-hawk, horned frog " "Who do you mean?" interrupted Glenn. "Posin, the maliverous rascal who collogued with the Injins to murder us all! I'm glad he got his dose and if he was alive now, I'd make him swaller at least two foot of my spear," said Sneak.
"Copper-Snake" did not return during the night, nor did we the next morning see anything of him; we therefore packed up, and began our tramp in the direction he had pointed out. The sky had hitherto been clear, but the clouds now began to spread over it, though there was scarcely a breath of air. In a short time the sun was so obscured that it no longer enabled us to steer our course.
I, hearing Pat shout, joined him, when the stranger replied in his own language, "I am Miskwandib. I received a kindness from a young pale-face some time back, and come to return it." On hearing what the stranger said, I recognised him as "Copper-Snake," to whom I had given a portion of food when Pat and I had lost ourselves. I immediately went down with Pat to admit him.
The idea would intrude, that "Copper-Snake" might have misled us, or that we had wandered out of our course. If so, we should be very hard pressed for food, or death by starvation might after all be our fate. I remembered too the anxiety my brother Alick would be enduring about me.