"The elders of the tribe regard him as a genius superior to other men, arranging events as he pleases, and able, if he will, to change the course of the future."
"Who says so?"
"Everybody."
The hunter shook his head, and pressing the girl's dainty hands in his own, he said, simply—
"You are deceived, child; Glass-eye is only a man like the others; the power you have been told of does not exist: I know not for what reason the chiefs of your nation have spread this absurd report; but it is a falsehood, which I must not allow to go further."
"No, White Buffalo is the wisest sachem of the Blackfeet; he possesses all the knowledge of his fathers on the other side of the Great Saltlake, he cannot err. Did he not announce, long ago, Glass-eye's arrival among us?"
"That is possible; although I cannot guess how he knew it, as only three days ago we were quite ignorant that we were coming to this village."
The maiden smiled triumphantly.
"White Buffalo knows all," she said; "besides, for many thousand moons the sorcerers of the nation have announced the coming of a man exactly like Glass-eye: his apparition was so truly predicted, that his arrival surprised nobody, as all expected him."
The hunter recognized the inutility of contending any longer against a conviction so deeply rooted in the young girl's heart.