“E-yah! Little Fox is the friend of the white man. Who would not serve them when he can earn such drink?”
“Tell Na-she-eschuck what to do and he will get fire-water from the white man.”
Drunk as he was, Little Fox looked at the speaker in astonishment. That the Sac youth would betray his father seemed impossible to him, and yet knowing how strong his own love of liquor was, and that he would betray a nation to obtain it, his surprise faded away.
“Will Na-she-eschuck do this? He can get more fire-water than Little Fox, for he knows more.”
“What must I do?”
“Go to the white men and tell them all that Black-Hawk is doing, and my brother will be very rich.”
“Has Little Fox done this?”
“He has done what he could, but he did not know much,” replied the traitor. “Na-she-eschuck has been in the lodge of his father and heard his words.”
“Na-she-eschuck will do any thing for fire-water,” said the young chief, seeming to reel as he sat. “Did the white men give all this for the message which was brought them by Little Fox?”
The Pottawattomie nodded, and again applied his mouth to the reed. But, at this moment the expression of drunken gravity passed away from the face of Na-she-eschuck. He bounded to his feet, with a look of wild rage upon his dark face and his hand upon his hatchet, and drunk as Little Fox was, he could see that he was deceived and that Na-she-eschuck was perfectly sober. He would have seized his rifle, but the foot of the young Sac was firmly planted upon it and he found it impossible to raise it, and the threatening action of Na-she-eschuck caused him to draw back in alarm.