the persons of his old friends, who were not slow to acknowledge his services.
“They haven’t treated us overly well,” remarked Joe Blunt, as they strode through the underwood.
“Non, de rascale, vraiment, dey am villains. Oui! How dey have talk, too, ’bout—oh-oo-ooo-wah!—roastin’ us alive, an’ putting our scalp in de vigvam for de poopoose to play wid!”
“Well, niver mind, Henri; we’ll be quits wi’ them now,” said Joe as they came in sight of the two bands, who remained in precisely the same position in which they had been left, except that one or two of the more reckless of the trappers had lit their pipes and taken to smoking, without, however, laying down their rifles or taking their eyes off the savages.
A loud cheer greeted the arrival of the prisoners, and looks of discomfort began to be evinced by the Indians.
“Glad to see you, friends,” said Cameron.
“Ve is ’appy ov de same,” replied Henri, swaggering up in the joviality of his heart, and seizing the trader’s hand in his own enormous fist. “Shall ve go to work an’ slay dem all at vonce, or von at a time?’
“We’ll consider that afterwards, my lad. Meantime go you to the rear and get a weapon of some sort.”
“Oui. Ah! c’est charmant,” he cried, going with an immense flounder into the midst of the amused trappers, and slapping those next to him on the back. “Give me veapon, do, mes amis—gun, pistol, anyting—cannon, if you have von.”
Meanwhile Cameron and Joe spoke together for a few moments. “You had goods with you, and horses, I believe, when you were captured,” said the former.
“Ay, that we had. Yonder stand the horses, under the pine-tree, along wi’ the rest o’ the Redskin troop; an’ a hard time they’ve had o’t, as their bones may tell without speakin’. As for the goods,” he continued, glancing round the camp, “I don’t know where—ah! yes, there they be in the old pack. I see, all safe.”
Cameron now addressed the Indians.
“The Peigans,” he said, “have not done well. Their hearts have not been true to the Pale-faces. Even now I could take your scalps, but white men do not like war, they do not like revenge. The Peigans may go free.”
Considering the fewness of their numbers, this was bold
