"Ha! You want to quit, do you? What is the trouble? Am I not treating you well?"
"Wait! They are to have a big surprise," said Tsistsaki and turned from us back to the lodges.
"Sare, M'sieu' Reynard," Henry continued, "eet ees no you. You hare one fine mans. Les sauvages, Assiniboins, Crows, many more zat wee' come, he are ze troub', m'sieu'."
"But you can't go back on your contracts!" my uncle exclaimed. "You all agreed to come down here and work for me a year; you signed contracts to that effect."
"Sare, honneur, we hare no sign eet ze pap' for fight heem, les sauvages. We no sign eet ze pap' for work all days and watch for les sacrés sauvages hall ze nights. Pretty soon we hall gets keel, m'sieu'. We hare no pour le combat; we hare jus' pauvre cordeliers, engagés in ze forts. M'sieu', you weel let hus go?"
I knew by the set expression of my uncle's face what his answer was to be, but he never gave it. Out came the women; their eyes were blazing, long braids were streaming, and they carried lodge-fire sticks in their hands. They charged upon their men, crying, "Cowards! You shall not desert our chief! Stay in the lodge and do our work; we'll build the fort! Give us your clothing; you shall wear our gowns!"
Never shall I forget that scene! The poor engagés shrank from the attack. Wild-eyed, they begged the women to desist, all the while getting painful whacks from their sticks and the most terrible tongue-lashing that could be given in the Blackfoot language! My uncle and Abbott laughed at their plight, and Pitamakan and I actually rolled upon the ground in a perfect frenzy of joy. When, at last, we sat up and wiped our eyes, there were the engagés heading for their lodges, and each one was followed by his woman, still shrieking out her candid opinion of him.
"Well, I guess that settles it!" Abbott exclaimed.
It did! When my uncle called the men together and gave out the detail of the night watch, not one of them made objection, and never again did they ask for their discharge.
With the setting of the sun, Abbott, Pitamakan, and I went down into the grove to our accustomed place, Abbott at the head of the grove and we at its east side. We fully expected that the Crow war party, repeating the tactics of the Assiniboins, would sneak into the grove during the night with the intention of making a surprise attack upon the men when they resumed work in it in the morning. It was agreed that, if they did come, we were to withdraw without letting them know, if possible, that we had seen them. That would mean, as my uncle remarked with a heavy sigh, that the grove would be given over to the enemy for an indefinite time, during which work on the fort would, of course, be suspended. Pitamakan said that, in his opinion, the war party, having had a good view of Is-spai-u and doubtless believing him to be the wonderful buffalo-runner they had heard about, would be far more likely to try to sneak him out of our camp than they would be to ambush us in the grove.