The hour is come
for sleep," said the trapper, with perfect composure. "Bid your
warriors go over yonder hill; there is water and there is wood; let
them light their fires and sleep with warm feet. When the sun comes
again I will speak to you."
A low murmur, but one that was clearly indicative of dissatisfaction,
passed among the attentive listeners, and served to inform the old man
that he had not been sufficiently wary in proposing a measure that he
intended should notify the travellers in the brake of the presence of
their dangerous neighbours. Mahtoree, however, without betraying, in
the slightest degree, the excitement which was so strongly exhibited
by his companions, continued the discourse in the same lofty manner as
before.
"I know that my friend is rich," he said; "that he has many warriors
not far off, and that horses are plentier with him, than dogs among
the red-skins."
"You see my warriors, and my horses."
"What! has the woman the feet of a Dahcotah, that she can walk for
thirty nights in the prairies, and not fall! I know the red men of the
woods make long marches on foot, but we, who live where the eye cannot
see from one lodge to another, love our horses.
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