296 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



chain over the child's head, threw it into the face of 

 the savage, and hurried to her bed. 



" The devil's in the woman ! " muttered her hus- 

 band, apparently not a little uneasy at her violence. 



"The red warrior," said the Indian, with immov- 

 able calm, " will pay with beaver-skins for the milk 

 that his little daughter drinks, but he will keep what 

 he has found, and the door must open when he 

 comes for the child." 



"That's all very well,'' said the tavern-keeper, to 

 whom it suddenly appeared to occur that some far- 

 ther explanation might not be altogether superfluous ; 

 "and I'll keep the child willingly enough, though, 

 thank God, I've plenty of my own. But if the 

 parents should come, or the white father hear of the 

 child, what then? The red chief knows that his 

 hand reaches far." 



The Indian remained for a while silent, and then 

 replied in a significant tone 



" The child's mother will never come. The night 

 is very dark, the storm howls in the forest to-morrow 

 nothing will be seen of the red men's footsteps. It 

 is far to the wigwam of the white father. If he hears 

 of the child, my white brother will have told him. If 

 he takes it, then will the red chief take the scalps of 

 his white brother's children." 



"Then take your child back again," said the back- 

 woodsman, in a decided tone " I'll have nought to 

 do with it." 



