"Me Gray Eagle, big chief of the Blackfeet. Heap matter! Leg broke, arm broke! Red Pine, the Sioux, has stolen Snowdrop, the daughter of Gray Eagle, and if I can not get her back, then my heart broke!" "Then you are old Gray Eagle, are you? Are you alone?" "Gray Eagle all alone. Kill him if you want." "Well, I don't know as I want to; scalping broken-legged Indians is not my business, just now. But, I'll tell you what I will do! If you will agree not to make war upon the whites again, but let them hunt and trap in these hills when they please, I will go for Snowdrop, and I will not return until I bring her and Red Pine's scalp! What do you say?" "Gray Eagle will promise!" "But your promise is not worth shucks unless you swear to it." "Gray Eagle will swear!" "Swear by the Great Spirit?" "Yes." "Swear by your knife and your tomahawk, and your horse?--even if he is dead he is good enough to swear by." "Yes, I swear by all these that I will be a friend to the pale-faces as long as I live if Snowdrop is saved." "Well, I don't know but that is about all you can do, and I will trust you; though if Jehiel was here he would say, 'Shoot him and let the Sioux keep the gal.' But I will carry you to my camp, and then I will go for Snowdrop; and I'll get her, too, if I have to follow Red Pine clear home!" The scout raised the chief in his arms and carried him to the camp. "There," he said, as he laid the chief upon a blanket, "you keep quiet until I come back." He called his horse, a beautiful black stallion, and mounting, started on the trail of the Sioux. CHAPTER II. SMITTEN. The daughter of Gray Eagle was one of the very few handsome Indian women. Though not more than sixteen years of age, she deserved the proud distinction she had won of being the flower of the Blackfoot nation, and the only really beautiful girl in the tribe. Dozens of chiefs had sought in vain to win her heart; even brave warriors from other tribes had offered fabulous gifts for her; but her father gave them all the same answer--that Snowdrop was the idol of his heart, and that he would not force her to marry a brave she did not like. As for Snowdrop herself, she had never loved any one except her father, and consequently none of the braves received any encouragement. But, Red Pine, a cruel chief of the Sioux, had seen her, and with him, to see her was to covet her; so he did not ask the consent of any one, but, watching his chance when the Blackfeet were nearly all gone on a hunt, and Gray Eagle was confined by sickness, he had stolen her away. Gray Eagle had followed on the trail, and when within rifle-shot of the Sioux, had met with the accident already narrated.