The old men exchanged looks. They nodded their heads gravely.
"I surely believe he has turned the scale!" breathed the anxious Sandy, noting these significant signs.
The shrewd old medicine man could not always foretell the weather; but he was able to discern a sudden change in the wind of popular approval. Before this dramatic coming of the young and wounded brave he knew the consensus of opinion ran strongly toward putting the prisoner to the stake. It was different now!
And so the wily old fellow once more started his incantations and whirlings, just as though he were taking them up at the point where he had been interrupted; but with a decided difference that even Sandy could notice.
His manner now was not fierce and ugly; he no longer made swift downward strokes with his extended arms, but extended them upward in a beseeching manner, as though imploring Manitou to have mercy.
Then, after a supreme exhibition of his powers, with a great rattling of wampum belt, and jangling metal discs that were strung about his person, he moved over to where Sandy stood, with the dusky protecting arm of Blue Jacket still flung about his shoulders.
Holding his hands above the white prisoner, the medicine man uttered a string of words, amid much bobbings of the head. Although he could interpret not a single expression, Sandy knew full well that in this way the wizard was declaring he had been taken under the especial charge of the Great Spirit, and that henceforth no Shawanee hand should be raised against a member of the Armstrong family.
The French trader had listened to all this with a sneer on his lips, while his face grew dark as though it pleased him not a bit.
Sandy had little discretion, as we have seen more than once. With his usual impetuosity he could not restrain himself from flashing a look of triumph toward Jacques Larue. The trader saw it, and gritted his teeth. After that, he would doubtless feel more than ever a vicious spite against anything that bore the brand of an Armstrong.
"Come!" said Blue Jacket, leading Sandy away.