It is reason that makes him
stronger than the buffaloe, and swifter than the moose. Now stay you
here, and keep yourselves close. My life and my traps are but of
little value, when the welfare of so many human souls are concerned;
and, moreover, I may say that I know the windings of Indian cunning.
Therefore will I go alone upon the prairie. It may so happen, that I
can yet draw the eyes of a Sioux from this spot and give you time and
room to fly."
As if resolved to listen to no remonstrance, the old man quietly
shouldered his rifle, and moving leisurely through the thicket, he
issued on the plain, at a point whence he might first appear before
the eyes of the Siouxes, without exciting their suspicions that he
came from its cover.
The instant that the figure of a man dressed in the garb of a hunter,
and bearing the well known and much dreaded rifle, appeared before the
eyes of the Siouxes, there was a sensible, though a suppressed
sensation in the band. The artifice of the trapper had so far
succeeded, as to render it extremely doubtful whether he came from
some point on the open prairie, or from the thicket; though the
Indians still continued to cast frequent and suspicious glances at the
cover.
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