The Last of the Plainsmen 



ing snake, spat in the hunter s face. He stood 

 immovable while they perpetrated the outrage, then 

 calmly wiped his cheeks, and in his strange, cool 

 voice, addressed the intrepreter. 



&quot; Tell them thus they show their true qualities, to 

 insult in council. Tell them they are not chiefs, but 

 dogs. Tell them they are not even squaws, only 

 poor, miserable starved dogs. Tell them I turn my 

 back on them. Tell them the paleface has fought 

 real chiefs, fierce, bold, like eagles, and he turns his 

 back on dogs. Tell them he is the one who could 

 teach them to raise the musk-oxen and the reindeer, 

 and to keep out the cold and the wolf. But they are 

 blinded. Tell them the hunter goes north.&quot; 



Through the council of chiefs ran a low mutter, 

 as of gathering thunder. 



True to his word, the hunter turned his back on 

 them. As he brushed by, his eye caught a gaunt 

 savage slipping from the boat. At the hunter s stern 

 call, the Indian leaped ashore, and started to run. 

 He had stolen a parcel, and would have succeeded in 

 eluding its owner but for an unforeseen obstacle, as 

 striking as it was unexpected. 



A white man of colossal stature had stepped in 

 the thief s passage, and laid two great hands on him. 

 Instantly the parcel flew from the Indian, and he 

 spun in the air to fall into the river with a sounding 



146 



