Reginald looked on with gratified pride, saying within himself, “I knew that nothing could resist the winning tones of that voice!
‘Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature;’
And where is there music like the voice of Prairie–bird?”
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ROOT–DIGGER MAKES FRIENDS WITH THE PARTY.—AN ADVENTURE WITH A GRISLY BEAR.—THE CONDUCT OF WAR–EAGLE.
No sooner had Prairie–bird gained the confidence of the Root–digger, than War–Eagle, Reginald, and the other chief hunters approached him with signs of amity and friendship: nevertheless, he continued shy and suspicious, still refusing to receive either food or present from any hand excepting that of the maiden. They were obliged, therefore, to make her their interpreter, and to endeavour, through her, to acquire the information of which they were in want respecting the scarcity or abundance of deer and bison in the neighbourhood.
In the discharge of this office, Prairie–bird discovered so much natural quickness, and at the same time so complete a knowledge of the Indian language of signs, that Reginald looked on with the most intense interest, while the maiden, whose beauty was so strongly contrasted with the hideous face and figure of the mountain dwarf, maintained with him a conversation of some length, in the course of which she learnt that there were few, if any, bison in the neighbourhood, but that the argali, or mountain sheep, and deer of several kinds, were to be found at no great distance. She succeeded also, at length, in so far disarming his suspicions, that he agreed to act as guide to Baptiste and Reginald in pursuit of game, and to return with them to reap the reward of his trouble in further presents from the hand of Prairie–bird.