The redskin advanced to the circle, and bowed low before the chiefs, who were all gazing at him.
"The Tigercat," spoke a deep and mournful voice, "had ordered the Black-Falcon to form an ambush with twenty warriors on the path of the palefaces, whom Stoneheart pretended to guide to their big stone huts. The Black-Falcon followed the palefaces a long time in the prairie. Their trail was clear; they had no arms; nothing seemed more easy than to seize them. An hour before the time fixed for the attack, Stoneheart appeared alone in the camp of the warriors. The Black-Falcon received him with the signs of friendship and praise, because he had abandoned the Yorris. But Stoneheart replied, that Tigercat forbade the attack on the palefaces, and, throwing himself on the Black-Falcon, thrust the knife into his heart; while the Yorris, who had stolen upon the camp, surprised the warriors, and massacred them with eruphas given by Tigercat himself. This treachery was done to put Black-Falcon out of his path, whose fame he envied. Twenty warriors followed the war path; six returned with me to the atepelt: the others have been slain by the Tigercat. I have said."
This astonishing revelation created a stern silence of amazement and rage. It was the calm that harbours the tempest. The chiefs looked from one to the other with eyes of wrath.
Of all races, the redskins are the most remarkable for the rapidity with which their moods change, and are most easily led away by feelings of rage. The amantzin was aware of this; therefore he was sure of his triumph, after the terrible impression made by the recital of the warrior.
"Ugh!" said he, "What do my brothers think now of the counsels of the Tigercat? Does the White-Eagle still think he has the heart of an Apache? Who will avenge the death of the Black-Falcon?"
Most of the chiefs rose at once, brandishing their scalping knives.
"The Tigercat is a thieving dog, and a coward!" they shouted. "The Apache warriors will tie his scalp to their girdles."
Only two or three of the sachems attempted to protest; they knew the amantzin's inveterate and long-standing hatred of Tigercat; they knew the knavish character of the sorcerer; and suspected that, in this affair, the truth had been disguised and garbled in order to serve the vengeance of the man who had vowed the death of a foe whom he would never dare to face openly.
But the voices of these chiefs were soon stifled by the clamorous ire of the other Indians. Renouncing, for the present, a useless discussion, they withdrew from the circle, and grouped themselves in a corner of the calli, resolved to remain the impassive, if not indifferent, witnesses of the resolutions to be taken by the council.
The Indians are grown-up children, who lash themselves into fury with the sound of their own words and, when excited by their passions, forget all prudence and moderation.