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It chanced at this time that there was a "snake in the grass" not far off. This was no other than the bad Indian Kateegoose. Why some people are what we call naturally bad, like Kateegoose, while others are what we call naturally good, like Okematan, is a mystery the investigation of which we propose postponing to a more convenient season.
"What," continued Okematan, with considerable vehemence, "what would my braves do if Okematan and a few of the Cree chiefs were to take all the lands of Red River, and all the buffalo, and all the birds and beasts to themselves, and drive the braves with their families to the shores of Lake Winnipeg, to live there on fish, or die, or leave the country if they did not like it! What would they do?"
"Don't trouble yourself with becauses, Little Bill, for I won't go. So there's an end of it unless," he added, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him, "unless they agree to take you with them. They might do worse. I'll see about that." So saying, Archie turned about, left the room as abruptly as he had entered it, and sought out Okematan.
Left behind by the sudden spurt of his leader, Davidson and his companion exerted themselves to overtake him, but the canoes of the enemy, which were just too late to cut off the retreat of Okematan, were in time to intercept the second canoe. In this emergency Dan swerved aside, hoping to get to the bank before the Saulteaux could discover his exact whereabouts.
He had gone off in company with Okematan to visit a camp of Cree Indians, intending to be back in time, but his horse had gone lame while yet far from home, and as it was impossible to procure another at the time, he was fain to grin and bear it.
"That iss bad, Taniel, ferry bad," said Fergus, as they reached the bottom of the hollow and began to ascend the succeeding undulation, "an' I am all the more sorry to hear it because our goot frund Okematan is a Cree." "Ay, Fergus, he is a great chief of the Crees, and a man of considerable influence among his people. I should not like to have him for an enemy."
No sign of surprise, or of any other emotion, was visible on the countenance of the Red-man as he replied: "Okematan went out to meet a party of his tribe on the war-path." Dechamp was not so successful in concealing his own surprise at this answer.
If it did, those wolves would not have sat there, in the pride of physical strength and personal freedom, calmly awaiting their doom, while Daniel and Peter Davidson, Duncan McKay junior, Okematan the Cree Indian, another Indian named Kateegoose, and Jacques Bourassin, a half-breed, came thundering down towards them like infuriated centaurs.
We feel, sadly, that unless you have tasted the northern winter no description, however graphic, will enable you to drink in the spirit of the northern spring. About this time Okematan, the Cree chief, took it into his head that he would go a-hunting.
We might easily sweep the Saulteaux into Lake Winnipeg if we thought it worth while to try, but the Palefaces never! Okematan has travelled far to the south and seen the Palefaces there. They cannot be counted. They swarm like our locusts; they darken the earth as our buffaloes darken the plains. They live in stone wigwams.
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