“The tongue of the Snake is forked. He speaks falsely when he says that the Big Medicine has not gone to the spirit-land. Dove-eye has spoken the truth.”
“Tush, girl! You need not think that you can carry it off with me in that way. Don’t I know that he is alive, and that you have concealed him from the tribe?”
“How can you know that which is not true?” replied Dove-eye, with a look of triumph. “I swear before the Great Spirit, that I have not concealed the Big Medicine.”
“I was only joking with you,” said Wormley, perceiving that he had made a mistake, and had got on the “wrong tack.” “I wished to convince you that I know what you really have done. It is true that the Big Medicine has gone to the spirit-land; but it is also true that he will never return. He is dead, and you have buried him.”
This was a home thrust, and it brought the blood to the cheeks of the troubled girl.
“He is dead,” continued the trader, “and you are deceiving the people to serve your own purpose, because you are not willing to marry; but you can’t fool me. You want to get the same influence over the tribe that the old man had; but I know that his trips to the spirit-land were nothing but nonsense, and that the messages which you pretend to bring from him have not a word of truth in them.”
“You had better tell the warriors,” suggested Dove-eye, “that the Big Medicine is a liar, and that he has always deceived them.”
“You can’t scare me in that way, girl. Of course I am not fool enough to tell the Arapahoes that I don’t believe that nonsense; but I mean to let you know that you are found out. The old men suspect that you have been cheating them. What do you suppose they would do to you, if I should tell them the truth of the matter?”
“If you should tell them lies, they would take your scalp.”