166 BARGAINING FOR A CAPTIVE. 
much larger sum was asked than we felt disposed 
to pay. Although the slave belonged solely to 
one Indian, the power to sell resting with him 
only, still every one had their say. Men 
gureled and spluttered strange unintelligible 
noises, women chattered and screamed like furies, 
whilst children engaged in small battles outside 
the ring. 
Thirty blankets and two trade-guns—equal to 
about 50/. sterling—were the terms at last 
agreed on. We then adjourned to the shed where 
the slave was a prisoner. I was in a great state 
of expectation, picturing to myself an Indian 
Hebe, limbs exquisitely moulded, native grace 
and elegance in every movement, gorgeous in 
‘wampum,’ paint, and waving feathers, such as 
I had read of as‘ Laughing Water,’ or ‘ Prairie 
Flower.’ 
Being carried, so to speak, into the shed—a 
waif in the stream of savages rushing like a 
human torrent to get in—with all the breath 
squeezed out of me, I was deposited somewhere ; 
but as my head was enveloped in a dense cloud 
of pungent smoke, it was some time ere I dis- 
covered I was close to the captain. ‘Sit down,’ 
he roared; ‘you will die of suffocation if you 
keep your head in the smoke.’ At once I seated 
wa Me 
