While Enemoya was thus strengthening himself for the pursuit,
passions of a strange and exciting character were slowly
kindling in the camp of the Pawnees. The growing sympathy
which Kionk showed for the beautiful captive, became intelligible
to his comrades a little sooner than to himself. They had
no such feelings, and they were a little resentful of his, accordingly.
Besides, one of his companions was a brother to one of
his many wives, and was particularly watchful of those peculiar
weaknesses of his kinsman, which were sufficiently notorious
among his people. Like Mark Antony, to whom we have
already compared him, Kionk had too tender a heart — he was
a born admirer of the sex, and would cheerfully lose the world
any day for any dusky Cleopatra. He suffered his companions
to see the progress which Missouri had made in his affections,

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by gravely proposing to them, as they rested in camp, the very
hour that Enemoya was making his bargain with the white men,
to “seek for another captive.” He was not quite sure that a
woman sacrifice was contemplated by the gods, or would be acceptable
to them. He very much doubted it himself. Indeed,
how should it be so. It was the war-god to whom the victim
was to be offered, and what should the victim be but a warrior.
They had seen the defenceless condition of the islet. It would
surely be easy to cast the snare about the feet of some one of
the veterans, and carry him off, as they had carried off Missouri.”
The brother-in-law answered with a sneer:—

“Is my brother prepared, when he hath taken the old warrior,
to leave the damsel behind him?”

This was a puzzler, by which Kionk began to see that he was
suspected. But he was a bold fellow, who did not care much to
offer apologies or excuses. He answered with equal promptness
and determination:—

“No, indeed; the captive woman is comely, and would be
the mother of many braves to a chief among the Pawnees.”

“As if the Pawness had no women of their own,” was the
reply of the other; and his sentiments were clearly those of the
larger number of his companions.—Kionk, bold as he was, was
not prepared to take the bull by the horns at that moment. He
saw that public opinion was against him, and he must wait events.
And this forbearance became much more essential, when his savage
brother-in-law deliberately urged upon the party “to subject
Missouri in the fire torture where they then were, and thus render
the matter certain. They would thus free themselves from
an incumbrance; would be better able to turn upon their enemies;
could then strike and scalp with impunity, and revenge
themselves fearfully for all the taunts of their impudent assailants,
made safe by the oracle, to which they had found it so
painful to submit. The requisitions of the oracle once complied
with, they would be free to use their scalping-knives on every
side.”

It required all the logic and eloquence of Kionk to silence
this terrible suggestion, one which better taught him to understand
the extent of his newly-awakened passion for his beautiful
and dangerous captive. His argument proved conclusive

[figure description] Page 430.[end figure description]

with all but his savage brother-in-law. He urged that the sacrifice
could only take place under the immediate sanction and
sight of the high-priest. But before the decision of his companions
could be made, the party had nearly come to blows. In
the midst of the discussion between Kionk and his kinsman, and
when both were nearly roused to madness, the latter sprang
suddenly upon Missouri — who had tremblingly listened to the
whole dispute — seized her by her long black hair, whirled her
furiously around, and actually lifted his knife to strike, before any
of them could interpose. Then it was that the whole lion nature
of Kionk was in arms, and tearing her away from the brutal assailant,
he hurled him to the earth, and, but for his companions,
would have brained him with his hatchet on the spot. But he
warned him with terrible eye, as he suffered him to rise, that if
he but laid his finger on the damsel again, he would hew him to
pieces. The kinsman rose, silent, sullen, unsubdued, and secretly
swearing in his soul to have his revenge yet. These events delayed
the party. It was long that night before they slept. It
was late — after daylight, next day — before the journey was
resumed. This gave new opportunities to the pursuers.

It was not difficult to retrace the steps of the white men,
which Enemoya had so unwisely followed, until he reached the
point where he had turned aside from the true object of pursuit.
To this the squatters themselves, who were as good at scouting,
any day, as the red men, very easily conducted. This brought
them to a late hour in the night, and here our whites proceeded
to make their camp, though, this time, without venturing to
make a fire. The Omaha chief would have hurried on, but his
companions very coolly and doggedly refused. He soon saw
the wisdom of curbing his impatience, not only because of the
inflexibility of his allies, but because, as they showed him, his
impatience would only cause him again to lose the trail, which it
was not possible to pursue by night. With the dawn, however,
the whites were on the alert, and one of them soon appeared
with a bead in his hand, the certain indication of the damsel's
route and providence. Enemoya readily conjectured the general
direction which would be taken by the Pawnees, and an
occasional bead, glistening upon the sandy spots, sufficed every
now and then to encourage the pursuers. At this period, the

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better knowledge of the country possessed by Enemoya, enabled
him, by striking an oblique course for the head of a creek,
which the Pawnees would be compelled to cross, to gain considerably
upon them, ignorant as they were of this shorter
route. The suggestion was fortunate; and, never once dreaming
of the events which had delayed the fugitives the last night, the
Omaha chief with his allies came unexpectedly upon them about
midday, where, squat beside a brooklet, they were taking a
brief rest and a little refreshment. This pause had become especially
necessary for Missouri, who, with incessant travel, and
the terror of the scene of the previous night, had succumbed,
and actually fainted that morning along the route. Kionk was
compelled to carry her, at various stages, in his arms — which
he did with the greatest tenderness — till the moment when the
party stopped for nooning beside the little brooklet, where Enemoya
and his white allies came upon them.

The Pawnees were overtaken, but not taken by surprise.
They did not certainly expect to be overtaken, but they had
relaxed in none of their vigilance, and their scout reported the
enemy before the latter had discovered the quarry. The Pawnees
were sitting upon the ground, scattered around a small circuit,
Missouri in the centre of the group, resting against a tree.
Her long hair was dishevelled, and lay heavily upon the leaves;
her face was sad and anxious, weary and without hope; — so
woful was the sight that the impulses of Enemoya, as he beheld
her, got for a moment the better of his prudence, and he rushed
out of the covert, shouting his war cry, and bounding forward
with uplifted tomahawk. It was with no scrupulous or gentle
hand that the elder of the white men caught him in his sinewy
grasp, and drew him back into the thickets.

With the signal whistle of their scout, the Pawnee warriors
were at once upon their legs, each covering himself with a tree;
and a dozen arrows were rapidly shot into the wood where our
squatters had taken harbor. But they were as quick and as
practised in woodcraft as the Pawnees, and laughed at this
demonstration. In numbers they exceeded the small party of
their enemies, and could have overwhelmed them probably by
a sudden rush from opposite quarters; but they were warned
against such audacity by beholding the danger of the dusky

[figure description] Page 432.[end figure description]

maiden, who was seized by the hair by one of the captors as soon
as Enemoya had shown himself, while a knife lifted over her bosom
threatened her with instant death at the first demonstration
of attack. Never had Enemoya before found himself in a situation
in which he was so little capable of resolving what should
be done. But the squatters who accompanied him were persons
of as much shrewdness and experience as daring. While they
felt that confidence and boldness were prime qualities of the
warrior, they also well knew that rashness and precipitance
would be fatal to their object. They held counsel among themselves,
never consulting the red chief, though he stood up and
listened. The Anglo-Norman has profound faith in parliaments.
“We must argyfy the case with these red devils,” was the conclusion
to which they came. They had profound faith in their
ability for “argyment.” The result of their deliberations was
to send forth one of their number, accompanied by Enemoya,
bearing a white handkerchief at the end of his rifle, and a long
pipe in his left hand — both signs of truce and amnesty — the
calumet that of the red men, the flag that of the white. The
object was to ascertain upon what terms the maiden would be
given up. Of course they did not know what issues hung upon
her fate, or what was her destiny, or that she was the subject
of an awful oracle.