In the mean time the trapper and the Sioux chief pursued their way to
the lodge. The former had watched with painful interest the expression
of Mahtoree's eye, while the words of Middleton and Paul were pursuing
their footsteps, but the mien of the Indian was far too much
restrained and self-guarded, to permit the smallest of his emotions to
escape through any of those ordinary outlets, by which the condition
of the human volcano is commonly betrayed. His look was fastened on
the little habitation they approached; and, for the moment, his
thoughts appeared to brood alone on the purposes of this extraordinary
visit.
The appearance of the interior of the lodge corresponded with its
exterior. It was larger than most of the others, more finished in its
form, and finer in its materials; but there its superiority ceased.
Nothing could be more simple and republican than the form of living
that the ambitious and powerful Teton chose to exhibit to the eyes of
his people. A choice collection of weapons for the chase, some three
or four medals, bestowed by the traders and political agents of the
Canadas as a homage to, or rather as an acknowledgment of, his rank,
with a few of the most indispensable articles of personal
accommodation, composed its furniture.
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