“Double–tongued, cowardly snake!” said Wingenund to himself, “he made a league with the Dahcotahs to destroy his Lenapé friends, and now he makes one with a stranger tribe to destroy those with whom he eats and smokes.”
That the youth rightly conjectured the object of the interview he could no longer doubt, when Mahéga, pointing directly to the valley where the Crows were encamped, repeated again the signals for attack and slaughter. Not a word passed during this time, excepting when the stranger drew from under his hunting–shirt a small whistle, made apparently either from a bone or a reed, and quaintly ornamented with stained quills and the down from the breast of some mountain bird; having applied this to his lips, he drew from it a peculiar sound, not remarkable for its shrillness, but different from any tone that Wingenund remembered to have heard before.
After two or three attempts Mahéga succeeded in sounding it correctly; and nodding intelligently to the stranger, concealed it carefully in his belt; they then exchanged the names or war–cry, by which they were to recognise each other, Mahéga teaching his new friend to say “Washashee,” and learning in return to pronounce “Ka–in–na,” which he repeated three or four times so distinctly that Wingenund caught and remembered it. These preparatory civilities having passed, they proceeded to the interchange of presents, by which their alliance was to be cemented.
Mahéga drew from his girdle a pistol, which he gave, together with a small leather pouch containing lead and powder, to the stranger chief, who received it with an air so puzzled and mysterious, that Mahéga could scarcely refrain from smiling. He turned the pistol over and over, looking down the barrel, and examining the lock with a curiosity that he cared not to conceal; he pointed it, however, towards a mark in an adjoining rock, and made a sound with his lips, which was intended to imitate its report, repeating at the same time the word “sachsi–nama,” as if to show that the name and use of the weapon were not strange to him, although he might never have seen one before. Mahéga then proceeded to show him how to use it, making signs that with it he might kill all his enemies; and upon the stranger expressing a wish to see an instance of its power, he placed a thin flat stone at the distance of a few yards, and split it in two at the first shot; after which he reloaded it, showing at the same time the use of the priming–pan and trigger.
It was not without a look of gratified pride that he placed the pistol in his belt, repeating again and again, “sachsi–nama,” “nahtovi–nama.” He then unslung the short bow that hung at his back, and presented it, with the panther–skin quiver full of arrows, to the Osage chief, who received the gift with every appearance of satisfaction, and they parted, the former returning towards the encampment of his tribe, after he had told Mahéga that the name of the bow was “nutsi–nâma.”[84]
For some time after the departure of his new ally, the Osage remained upon his seat examining the bow, which at first sight he had considered a mere toy, but which he found, to his astonishment, required all his force to draw it to its full power. Being formed of bone, strengthened throughout with sinew, it was stiff and elastic to an extraordinary degree; and although not more than three feet in length, would drive an arrow as far as an ordinary six–feet bow.
When he had sufficiently examined his new acquisition, it occurred to the chief that he could not, without risk of detection, carry it into the Crow camp. He resolved, therefore, to hide it in a dry cleft of the rock, and take it out again after the issue of his plot should be decided.
This resolution threatened to bring about an unexpected catastrophe, as it happened that he approached the very recess in which Wingenund was stationed. Drawing the knife from his belt, the youth stood in the inmost corner of the cavern, ready, as soon as discovery became inevitable, to spring upon his powerful enemy; but fate had otherwise decreed, and the Osage passed on to a higher and narrower cleft, where he deposited the quiver and the bow, carefully closing the aperture with moss and lichen.
It was not until he had gone some distance on his homeward way, that Wingenund emerged from his hiding–place, and having possessed himself of the quiver and bow, returned slowly upon the Osage’s trail towards the Upsaroka camp, proving as he went the surprising strength of the weapon, and admiring the straightness and beauty of the war–arrows with which the quiver was supplied.[85]
Following unperceived, and at some distance, the steps of the Osage, he found that the latter took a shorter, though a somewhat steeper and more rugged way than that by which he had come, so that very little more than two hours of brisk walking brought him within sight of the watch–fires of the Upsaroka camp, just as day closed, and their light began to shine more brightly through the valley. Availing himself of the shelter of a stunted pine, the youth lay down for some time, and did not re–enter the camp until late at night, when he made his way without interruption to Besha’s tent, giving to the outposts by whom he was challenged, the countersign taught him by the horse–dealer.