The appearance of the Evil One, with hoofs, horns, claws and brimstone-breath, could scarcely have produced a more decided impression. The warriors started back in terror, the squaws fled shrieking—the Medicine stood aghast, and had the scout been so minded he could have gone whichever way he willed without any one daring to molest him. But such was not his purpose. The part he was to play had been well thought of, and, after giving them time to become somewhat convinced that he was not a ghost escaped from the graveyard, he continued:
"Warriors of ther Sioux, thar's er good many of yer who have known me fer years and yer have always found my trail er honest and er open one. We have bin friends and I mean that we shall be so ergin. Ef I had been er mind I could have got whar yer never could have found me and it would have been mighty dangerous fer yer ter come."
"Beaver Tail is cunning upon the trail and brave on the war-path," replied the chief, obliged to say something.
"Wal, I don't make no boast of fightin'—it hain't my trade. But I won my name fairly in trappin' beaver, and yer know they are a cunnin' varmint."
"The skins he has taken are countless as the stars."
"Not quite so many as that. But I didn't come back to brag. Yer see, I trusted ye, and knew we would be friends ergin, when yer got ther black scales from before yer eyes, an' stood in ther sunshine, an' could see things as they am. So I came back with naked hands. S'arch me, ef yer have er mind ter, an' yer won't find a weepon of any kind, not even so much as ther leetlest knife, erbout me."
"Whatever trail his moccasins may have traveled, his tongue is journeying that of truth."
"Yer kin bet every buffler-robe yer 've got on that, and win."
"Beaver Tail is wise. But he did not come back into the wigwams of the Sioux to tell them this?"
"Not a bit on it. But I had ter go through with what the law-makers of my people call ther preramble fust. What I come back fer war ter whisper in yer ears that yer have bin nussin' a pesky, p'ison sarpint in yer bosom, an' it am a-gittin' ready ter sting yer ter the heart—all on yer."