42 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



and should be good pilots to the best hunting-grounds. 

 By the middle of July all business had been completed, 

 and the trappers spent a last night round camp-fires, 

 spinning yarns of the hunt. 



Early in the morning when the Rocky Mountain 

 men were sallying from the valley, they met a cavalcade 

 of one hundred and iifty Blackfeet. Each party halted 

 to survey its opponent. In less than ten years the 

 Rocky Mountain men had lost more than seventy com 

 rades among hostiles. Even now the Indians were 

 flourishing a flag captured from murdered Hudson s 

 Bay hunters. 



The number of whites disconcerted the Indians. 

 Their warlike advance gave place to friendliness. One 

 chief came forward with the hand of comity extended. 

 The whites were not deceived. Many a time had Rocky 

 Mountain trappers been lured to their death by such 

 overtures. 



No excuse is offered for the hunters. The code of 

 the wilderness never lays the unction of a hypocritical 

 excuse to conscience. The trappers sent two scouts to 

 parley with the detested enemy. One trapper, with In 

 dian blood in his veins and Indian thirst for the avenge- 

 ment of a kinsman s death in his heart, grasped the 

 chief s extended hand with the clasp of a steel trap. 

 On the instant the other scout fired. The powerless 

 chief fell dead ; and using their horses as a breastwork, 

 the Blackfeet hastily threw themselves behind some 

 timber, cast up trenches, and shot from cover. 



All the trappers at the rendezvous spurred to the 

 fight, priming guns, casting off valuables, making their 

 wills as they rode. The battle lasted all day; and when 

 under cover of night the Indians withdrew, twelve men 



