When
Middleton and Hard-Heart, each of whom had involuntarily extended a
hand to support the form of the old man, turned to him again, they
found, that the subject of their interest was removed for ever beyond
the necessity of their care. They mournfully placed the body in its
seat, and Le Balafre arose to announce the termination of the scene,
to the tribe. The voice of the old Indian seemed a sort of echo from
that invisible world, to which the meek spirit of the trapper had just
departed.
"A valiant, a just, and a wise warrior has gone on the path, which
will lead him to the blessed grounds of his people!" he said. "When
the voice of the Wahcondah called him, he was ready to answer. Go, my
children; remember the just chief of the Pale-faces, and clear your
own tracks from briars."
The grave was made beneath the shade of some noble oaks. It has been
carefully watched to the present hour by the Pawnees of the Loop, and
is often shown to the traveller and the trader as a spot where a just
Whiteman sleeps.
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