This was very much more than he had bargained for. But resistance would have been useless, and with any thing but pleasant feelings he handed over rifle, knife, and hatchet.
"I will go with you and show you the way," he said, seeking to gain their favor.
"The red-man needs nothing but the stars to guide them at midnight—nothing but the smoke of the pale-man's fire to tell them where he lies hidden. Let the braves take him to the Medicine and tell him to keep him safe until they return. If his words are true he has nothing to fear. If not, he will learn what it is to be treacherous to the red-man. The Sioux are great warriors and they laugh at the traps of their enemies."
At a signal from the chief the arms of the white renegade were bound behind his back, and accompanied by half a dozen stalwart braves, he was led through and beyond the group of wigwams, out into the forest, and when he questioned where they were going, the only answer he could obtain was:
"To the Medicine."
A short journey and they reached a bluff by the side of a stream that found its way through a rocky cañon. A low, peculiar whistle called from a well-concealed opening the old trickster, who was supposed to hold communion with the moon and stars, the dead, and the great Manitou.
"The great Medicine of the Sioux," said the leader of the party, "will take care of the pale-face until the warriors return."
"It is well. Follow me."
Unable to resist, the already frightened man followed his appointed keeper into the rocky cavern, and by his direction took a seat at the extreme rear. And as his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the darkness, saw that he was surrounded by every thing that was devilish and horrible—by the bones and skulls and scalps of dead men—by bats and owls—by a hideous living bear and a grinning, snarling, spitting wildcat, that exerted all their monstrous strength to tear loose and spring upon him.
"The pale-face will be safe here," said the Medicine, with an almost fiendish smile. "No one will come to do him any harm while I am gone. The air is strong with blood. I can smell it—the blood of the miserable pale-face. I must go and prepare for the torture."