"If you will give me your word of honour not to escape, gentlemen," White Buffalo said, "you will be unloosed, and your weapons restored to you."
"Is this another trap you are laying for us?" the Count asked, haughtily.
"Bah!" Bright-eye said, with a significant glance at his comrade, "we will give our word for four-and-twenty hours; after that, we will see."
"You hear, gentlemen," the young man said; "this hunter and myself pledge our words for four-and-twenty hours. Does that suit you? Of course, at the end of that time, we are free to recall it."
"Or to pledge it again," the Canadian added, with a smile; "what do we risk by doing so?"
The two Chiefs exchanged a few whispered words.
"We accept," Natah Otann at length said.
At a sign from him, the prisoners' bonds were cut, and they rose.
"Hum!" Bright-eye said, stretching himself with delight, "it does one good to have the use of his limbs. Bah! I knew they would not kill me this time, either."
"Here are your horses and arms, gentlemen," the Chief said.