The two white men walked into the Blackfoot camp and seating themselves beside the fire, entered into conversation with the chief.
"Red Pine, the Sioux, has taken the daughter of Gray Eagle once more," he said. "Can White Panther tell who is to rescue her?"
"It is as much your business as anybody's, I should say," replied the scout, who had heard what Gray Eagle had said about him to Jehiel and Snowdrop.
"Does White Panther remember his promise?"
"Yes. But it seems that the chief of the Blackfeet has forgotten his," replied the scout.
"No. Gray Eagle never forgets! When the White Panther does all he promised, then the pale-faces can come and go when they please, among the Black Hills."
The scout felt the spirit of perverseness rising within him.
"I don't know as I care very much about it any more," he replied. "It is all the same to me if Red Pine keeps the Blackfoot queen, and starves her father to death—as it seems he can if he wants to. Jehiel told me all about it, chief, how you was going off home without making an effort to find me, after I had risked my life half a dozen times for you and your daughter!"
"Snowdrop loves the White Panther," suggested Gray Eagle.
"I don't care if she does; I don't love her, and I have told her so; and if she had not made a fool of herself by running after me, she would not now be in the hands of the Sioux. But no matter about that—you don't love me, if she does; and I am half a mind to let the Sioux starve you out."