“Now go to bed. Don’t speak to me agin to night,” said Sneak, indignantly.
“I’ll go and get something to eat,” said Joe, retreating into the house.
“Tell Roughgrove to come here,” said Boone, speaking to Joe.
“I will,” said Joe, vanishing through the door.
When the old ferryman came out, Boone requested him (he being the most familiar with the Osage language,) to ask the savage by what means he was enabled to get inside of the inclosure. Roughgrove did his bidding; and the Indian replied that the Great Spirit threw him over the palisade, because he once killed a friend of Boone’s at the cave-spring, and was now attempting to kill another.
“Why did you wish to kill us?” asked Roughgrove.
The Indian said it was because they thought Glenn had a great deal of money, many fire weapons, and powder and bullets, which they (the savages) wanted.
“Was it right to rob the white man of these things, and then to murder him?” continued Roughgrove.
The savage replied that the prophet (Raven) had told the war-party it was right. Besides, they came a long and painful journey to get (Glenn’s) goods, and had suffered much with cold in digging under the snow; several of their party had been killed and wounded, and he thought they had a good right to every thing they could get.
“Did the whites ever go to your village to rob and murder?” inquired the old ferryman.