“The Pawnee chief loves to walk by the moon, too; he will go with the Pale-faces.”
“Good!” ejaculated Joe. “Come along, then.”
The party immediately set forward, although the savage was a little taken by surprise at the indifferent way in which Joe received his proposal to accompany them. He walked on to the edge of the prairie, and then stopped.
“The Pale-faces must go alone,” said he; “Mahtawa will return to his tent.”
Joe replied to this intimation by seizing him suddenly by the throat and choking back the yell that would otherwise have brought the Pawnee warriors rushing to the scene of action in hundreds. Mahtawa’s hand was on on the handle of his scalping-knife in a moment, but before he could draw it his arms were glued to his sides by the bear-like embrace of Henri, while Dick tied a handkerchief quickly yet firmly round his mouth. The whole thing was accomplished in two minutes. After taking his knife and tomahawk away, they loosened their grip and escorted him swiftly over the prairie.
Mahtawa was perfectly submissive after the first convulsive struggle was over. He knew that the men who walked on each side of him grasping his arms were more than his match singly, so he wisely made no resistance.
Hurrying him to a clump of small trees on the plain which was so far from the village that a yell could not be heard, they removed the bandage from Mahtawa’s mouth.
“Must he be kill?” inquired Henri, in a tone of commiseration.
“Not at all,” answered Joe; “we’ll tie him to a tree and leave him here.”
“Then he vill be starved. Oh, dat is more horrobell!”
“He must take his chance o’ that. I’ve no doubt his friends ’ll find him in a day or two, an’ he’s game to last for a week or more. But you’ll have to run to the willow bluff, and bring a bit of line to tie him. We can’t spare it well; but there’s no help.”
“But there is help,” retorted Dick. “Just order the villain to climb into that tree.”
“Why so, lad?”
“Don’t ask questions, but do what I bid ye.”
The hunter smiled for a moment as he turned to the Indian, and ordered him to climb up a small tree near to which he stood. Mahtawa looked surprised, but there
