the medicine gun. Although we said, No, we could not part with it, he
tried to take it by force. Are we to go back to the great chief of the
Pale-faces and say that the Pawnees are thieves? Are the Pale-faces
henceforth to tell their children when they steal, 'That is bad;
that is like the Pawnee?' No; this must not be. The rifle shall be
restored, and we will forget this disagreement. Is it not so?"

There was an evident disposition on the part of many of the Indians,
with whom Mahtawa was no favourite, to applaud this speech; but the
wily chief sprang forward, and, with flashing eyes, sought to turn the
tables.

"The Pale-face speaks with soft words, but his heart is false. Is he
not going to make peace with the enemies of the Pawnee? Is he not
going to take goods to them, and make them gifts and promises? The
Pale-faces are spies. They come to see the weakness of the Pawnee
camp; but they have found that it is strong. Shall we suffer the false
hearts to escape? Shall they live? No; we will hang their scalps in
our wigwams, for they have _struck a chief_, and we will keep all
their goods for our squaws--wah!"

This allusion to keeping all the goods had more effect on the minds of
the vacillating savages than the chief's eloquence. But a new turn
was given to their thoughts by Joe Blunt remarking in a quiet, almost
contemptuous tone,--

"Mahtawa is not the _great_ chief."

"True, true," they cried, and immediately hurried to the tent of
San-it-sa-rish.