conference between the Indians and the white settlers. The malignant
chief had settled the plan.

"When the white faces come to our lodge, they will expect no harm.
Ugh! Then the red man will have his vengeance." So every Indian was
instructed to have his rifle at hand in the lodge. The white folk
wondered why the Indians had arranged for a conference.

"We can do nothing to help their case," they said. "It will only
waste time to go." Many of them, therefore, remained at home,
occupying themselves with their various duties, while the rest,
merely for the sake of agreeableness, and of showing the Indians that
they were interested in their affairs, proceeded to the place
appointed for the pow-wow.

"We hope to smoke our pipes before our white brothers go away from
us," was what the treacherous chief, with wolfish eyes, had said, in
order to put the settlers off their guard.

The morning of the fateful day opened gloomily, as if it could not
look cheerily down upon the bloody events planned in this distant
wilderness. Low, indigo clouds pressed down upon the hills, but there
was not a stir in all the air. No living thing was seen stirring,
save troops of blue-jays which went scolding from tree to tree before
the settlers as they proceeded to the conference. Here and there,
also, was a half-famished, yellow, or black and yellow dog, with
small head and long scraggy hair, skulking about the fields and among
the wigwams of the Indians in search for food.

The lodge where the parley was to be held stood in a hollow. Behind