Ku-nan-gu-no-nah had not intended to push Bear-Killer over the bluff. He knew that treachery was one of his strongest characteristics, and fearful lest in some manner he should lose his revenge, or rather his chance for revenge, on his white rival, he watched him narrowly as he made ready to hurl his tomahawk in the trial of skill he had proposed to determine which of the two should put the unconscious young hunter to death; and he detected almost instantly the intention of Bear-Killer to act in accordance with this his most prominent trait of character.
He saw that the treacherous brave was poising his tomahawk to throw, not at the mark on the tree-trunk, but at the head of their victim!
All the quick, wild passion of his fierce nature was aroused in an instant.
He was not one to brook treachery.
With a cry of rage, he struck Bear-Killer a sudden powerful blow with his fist.
The doomed savage lost his balance and toppled over the precipice.
While yet his wild death yell rung out on the storm, Ku-nan-gu-no-nah threw himself flat on the ground, and craning his neck out over the bank, looked down into the foaming water below.
At first he saw nothing but the jagged rocks and the tossing flood. Then, a little down-stream, the dusky face of his victim was visible for an instant amid the eddying waters, then it sunk from sight forever.
“He will be carried over the waterfall,” said the chief. “He will lodge on the rocks below. I will send the pale-face after him, and he can take his revenge down there. He will not dispute my right to the first chance. I will take my revenge now. He can have his afterward—all he can get!”
There was no place in the red fiend’s heart, for remorse for any evil deed. He had looked upon the whole affair as a fortunate accident that had rid him of one who stood in his way—nothing more!