Doc Bell had noticed him before he left the blaze, and he felt assured in his own mind that he had encountered that stalwart form before. But he never knew a savage of such particular build, who owned such a mass of hair. A moment later, when the Indian wheeled and displayed his features to the hunter, the exclamation which concluded his mutterings escaped his lips.
“The pale-face is as hungry as the nestlings whose mother is no more,” said the Indian, pausing before the giant, whose sturdy eyes were filled with wonder and amazement.
“Hungry!” he cried, in an overtone; “I should reckon I was hungry,” and then his voice dropped to a whisper. “Nehonesto, I could eat you, hair an’ all.”
The hunter’s words threw a strange light into the Indian’s eyes. He stepped forward quite impulsively, and his right hand jerked the unnecessarily broad deer-skin strap of his paint-bag from its accustomed position on his tawny breast. A second later his hand dropped to his side, but the giant had caught sight of a crescent star, again hidden by the strap.
Then, in silence, Nehonesto, as Doc Bell had styled the Indian, satisfied his hunger, and in like manner his fellow-captives were fed.
“There goes a friend!” murmured the hunter, as Nehonesto returned to the fire, without having spoken a hopeful word. “I thought the fellow dead, an’ it’s the Almighty’s doin’s thet we’ve come together again. Wonder where Tarpah is, an’ Mohesto an’ Otter Eyes, an’ the rest of our brotherhood? Thank God for Nehonesto, at least. But, suppose the Injuns should take a notion to finish us to-day, what could Nehonesto do?” and away down in his heart he answered, “Nothing!”
But he kept his eyes riveted upon the Indian, who never deigned him a glance, but ate his venison in stolid silence among the congregation of chiefs.
The hunter would fain have bidden his companions hope; but he was too widely separated from them to converse in whispers, and, besides, an Indian stood between him and them. A word might seal his doom.
For two long hours the chiefs were holding low converse, and the giant hunter saw Nehonesto among them.
What would the Indians do?