“Is that your camp?” inquired Cameron, riding up to the Indian runners, who stood in a group in front, looking as fresh after their twenty miles’ run as though they had only had a short walk.

To this they answered in the affirmative, adding that there were about two hundred Peigans there.

It might have been thought that thirty men would have hesitated to venture to attack so large a number as two hundred; but it had always been found in the experience of Indian life that a few resolute white men well armed were more than a match for ten times their number of Indians.  And this arose not so much from the superior strength or agility of the Whites over their red foes, as from that bull-dog courage and utter recklessness of their lives in combat—­qualities which the crafty savage can neither imitate nor understand.  The information was received with perfect indifference by most of the trappers, and with contemptuous laughter by some; for a large number of Cameron’s men were wild, evil-disposed fellows, who would have as gladly taken the life of an Indian as that of a buffalo.

Just as the word was given to resume the march, Dick Varley rode up to Cameron and said in a somewhat anxious tone,—­

“D’ye obsarve, sir, that one o’ the Redskins has gone off ahead o’ his comrades?”

“I see that, Master Dick; and it was a mistake of mine not to have stopped him, but he was gone too far before I observed it, and I thought it better to appear unconcerned.  We must push on, though, and give him as short time as possible to talk with his comrades in the camp.”

The trappers pressed forward accordingly at a gallop, and were soon in front of the clump of trees amongst which the Peigans were encamped.  Their approach had evidently spread great alarm among them, for there was a good deal of bustle and running to and fro; but by the time the trappers had dismounted and advanced in a body on foot, the savages had resumed their usual quiet dignity of appearance, and were seated calmly round their fires with their bows and arrows beside them.  There were no tents, no women or children, and the general aspect of the men showed Cameron conclusively that his surmise about their being a war party was correct.

A council was immediately called.  The trappers ranged themselves on one side of the council fire and the Indians on the other.  Meanwhile, our friend Crusoe had been displaying considerable irritability against the Indians, and he would certainly have attacked the whole two hundred single-handed if he had not been ordered by his master to lie still; but never in his life before had Crusoe obeyed with such a bad grace.  He bristled and whined in a low tremulous tone, and looked imploringly at Dick as if for permission to fly at them.

“The Pale-face traders are glad to meet with the Peigans,” began Cameron, who determined to make no allusion to his knowledge that they were a war party, “for they wish to be friends with all the children of the woods and prairies.  They wish to trade with them—­to exchange blankets, and guns, and beads, and other goods which the Peigans require, for furs of animals which the Pale-faces require.”