Cameron now felt convinced that this party of Peigans, into whose hands Joe Blunt and Henri had fallen, were nothing else than a war party, and that the men now before him were a scouting party sent out from them, probably to spy out his own camp, on the trail of which they had fallen, so he said to them:—­

“The Peigans are not wise men; they tell lies to the traders.  I will tell you that you are a war party, and that you are only a few warriors sent out to spy the traders’ camp.  You have also two Pale-face prisoners in your camp.  You cannot deceive me.  It is useless to try.  Now, conduct me to your camp.  My object is not war; it is peace.  I will speak with your chiefs about trading with the white men, and we will smoke the pipe of peace.  Are my words good?”

Despite their proverbial control of muscle, these Indians could not conceal their astonishment at hearing so much of their affairs thus laid bare; so they said that the Pale-face chief was wise, that he must be a great medicine man, and that what he said was all true except about the white men.  They had never seen any Pale-faces, and knew nothing whatever about those he spoke of.

This was a terrible piece of news to poor Dick, and at first his heart fairly sank within him, but by degrees he came to be more hopeful.  He concluded that if these men told lies in regard to one thing, they would do it in regard to another, and perhaps they might have some strong reason for denying any knowledge of Joe and Henri.

The Indians now packed up the buffalo robes on which they had slept, and the mouthful of provisions they had taken with them.

“I don’t believe a word of what they say about your friends,” said Cameron to Dick in a low tone while the Indians were thus engaged.  “Depend upon it they hope to hide them till they can send to the settlements and get a ransom, or till they get an opportunity of torturing them to death before their women and children when they get back to their own village.  But we’ll balk them, my friend, do not fear.”

The Indians were soon ready to start, for they were cumbered with marvellously little camp equipage.  In less than half-an-hour after their discovery they were running like deer ahead of the cavalcade in the direction of the Peigan camp.

CHAPTER XIX.

Adventures with the Peigans—­Crusoe does good service as a discoverer—­The savages outwitted—­The rescue.

A run of twenty miles brought the travellers to a rugged defile in the mountains, from which they had a view of a beautiful valley of considerable extent.  During the last two days a steady thaw had been rapidly melting away the snow, so that it appeared only here and there in the landscape in dazzling patches.  At the distance of about half-a-mile from where they halted to breathe the horses before commencing the descent into this vale, several thin wreaths of smoke were seen rising above the trees.