"'From the Missiskoui, where once I had a wigwam, and where my squaw and her little papooses perished at the hands of the white men?' said the savage, in a husky and guttural voice, while his stealthy eyes filled with a malevolent gleam, as he sat sullenly smoking under a tree.
"'You're a darned fool, Vipre,' said Treherne, angrily. 'Look ye har—what's the use o' thinking o' that now? What's past is past, ain't it?'
"'She appealed to them, and they laughed at her. She appealed to Manitto, but his face was hidden behind a cloud, and he saw neither her nor what the pale-faces did to her. She is with Manitto now—but I yet am here.'
"'We may have a scrimmage, Delaware—can you bite yet?' asked Treherne, testily.
"The savage pointed to his scalping-knife and grinned.
"'Will you venture with me for twelve bottles of the raal Jamaiky fire-water?'
"'Oui, ja, yes!' said the savage, eagerly, in his mixed jargon; 'I neither fear the feathered arrows of the rebel Iroquois, or the lead bullets of the Yankees. Go! Le Vipre Noir is a warrior!'
"'Delaware,' said I, patting his muscular shoulder, 'what are the greatest of human virtues?'
"'Courage and contempt of death,' he replied, loftily, while shaking the two heron's plumes in his scalp lock.
"'Good,' said Halkett, who had listened to all this preamble with irrepressible anxiety and impatience; 'here are ten guineas as an earnest of future reward, Delaware. You will risk this for me?'