The man frowned as though angry, and Dick feared he was about to strike the bold boy a blow in the face, which would have precipitated a fight in which Roger would have gone down to defeat. However, Waller managed to keep his temper in control, and sneering again, went on to say:
“Oh! to make sure that you would be held a close prisoner, I merely told them that you boys were the sons of the Big White Father away off in the Land of the Rising Sun; and that if they held you safe they could demand a great ransom in wampum, sticks-that-shoot-fire, and everything that the heart of an Indian could wish. In other words I have cooked your goose for you. You may be sure you will never be allowed to go free.”
He turned his back on them and commenced talking with one of the Dacotahs, who, from the feathers in his black hair, seemed to be some sort of sub-chief. Much of the conversation was carried on by gestures, in which Waller seemed to be unusually expert.
Dick watched closely in the hope that he might be able to catch the drift of what was passing between the two. That he and Roger were the objects under consideration he had not the slightest doubt, for several times one or the other pointed toward the spot where they stood.
“Can you make it out at all, Dick?” Roger asked.
“I am sorry to say it’s more than I’ve been able to understand, Roger; but I think he’s telling the chief again how valuable we are as prizes. And to think we have no way of proving to him that we are only ordinary boys, without rich fathers to pay a big ransom. It is just the sort of game we might have expected Andrew Waller to play.”
The man who had been sent out of the camp of the explorers now approached them again. He was rubbing his hands as though in great glee.
“Now, I shall not only have my pick of two good guns, but plenty of ammunition for them, in spite of Captain Lewis. I am going to say good-by to you here, for I have to meet M’sieu Lascelles at an appointed rendezvous. Oh! he will be very much pleased when he learns how the Dacotahs prize the boys he hates so bitterly, and mean to carry them off to their villages, far to the north, there to keep them until the big ransom arrives. It tickles me to know how soon my debt to you has been so nicely cancelled.”
Roger gritted his teeth, but he managed to keep from saying anything.