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I looked toward them, and made some remark about their wretched appearance. But I was touching upon delicate ground. "My squaw's relations live in those lodges," said Reynal very warmly, "and there isn't a better set in the whole village." "Are there any chiefs among them?" asked I. "Chiefs?" said Reynal; "yes, plenty!" "What are their names?" I inquired. "Their names? Why, there's the Arrow-Head.
The policeman told him that would be all right, and I led Pa away. He was offul mad. But it was the best fun when the lights went out. You see the electric light machine slipped a cog, or lost its cud, and all of a sudden the lights went out and it was as dark as a squaw's pocket. Pa wanted to know what made it so dark, and I told him it was not dark. He said boy don't you fool me.
Nick had care of the presents, and on him the cunning old chief kept his eyes. He opened a large bag of beads and emptied some on a spread of cheap print. The squaw's eyes smiled greedily. "We wish the great chief well," said Ralph, using all the flowery embellishments of the Cree tongue, "and we would live in peace. We have tobacco, beads, skins, prints, and blankets.
It was a moment of intense anxiety to our poor wanderers, whose terrors were more excited on behalf of the young Mohawk than for themselves, and they congratulated her on her escape with affectionate warmth. "Are my white brothers afraid to die?" was the young squaw's half-scornful reply. "Indiana is the daughter of a brave; she fears not to die."
"Ugh, he does squaw's work," was the ungracious comment. After awhile, when the lodge was up and Cecil lay weary and exhausted upon his mat within it, a messenger entered and told him that the Indians were all collected near the river bank and wished him to come and give them the "talk" he had brought from the Great Spirit. Worn as he was, Cecil arose and went.
An awful crash was followed by two crunches and it was gone; and Crusoe looked up in the old squaw's face with a look that said plainly, "Another of the same, please, and as quick as possible." The old woman gave him another and then a lump of meat, which latter went down with a gulp but he coughed after it! and it was well he didn't choke.
"'This yere is the only wagon-track out; says Dave to me, after we pow-wows an hour. 'You go down to them Injuns, an' find the right buck that a-way, an' tell him the squaw's got a buck now. Tell him he's barred. Which at this p'int in your revelations he's due to offer a fight, an' of course you takes him. Tell him at first-drink time to-morrow mornin' he finds me ready to fight for the squaw.
"Welcome," she said in her deep voice, and held out a hand to be shaken as white folk shake hands, not in the way Indians do it. "What is it I must say to you?" she went on, in a puzzled way. "Oh, I know. 'Much happy return. That is how you tell me the last time you come." The squaw's great black eyes wore their wonderful soft look as they gazed down upon her visitor.
"The heap-much Indian chief didn't understand a word of what the Negro sergeant said to him, but he understands pantomime all right, and when the black man in uniform grabbed the pail out of the squaw's hand and thrust it into the dirty paw of the chief the chief went after that bucket of water, and he went a-loping, too."
The children were unbound and borne in state to the old squaw's wigwam. From that hour, though they were closely watched and guarded, their lives were safe. From the conduct of the Indians towards Tom, it was evident that his time for torture had not yet arrived.
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