"I have told you; because, contrary to sworn faith and pledged word, they refused to give up the land." "What do you say?" "Certainly, because they had sold me the territory they occupied." "Oh, oh, Captain! This requires an explanation." "It is very easy to give, and to prove my good faith in the matter, I will show you the deed of sale." The hunter and the Chief exchanged a glance of surprise. "I am quite out of my reckoning," said Tranquil. "Wait a moment," the Captain went on, "I will fetch the deed and show it to you." And he went out. "Oh, sir!" the young lady exclaimed, as she clasped her hands entreatingly, "try to prevent a quarrel." "Alas, madam!" the hunter said sadly, "that will be very difficult, after the turn matters have taken." "Here, look," the Captain said, as he came in and showed them the deed. The two men required but a glance to detect the trick. "That deed is false," said Tranquil. "False! That is impossible!" the Captain went on in stupor; "If it be, I am odiously deceived." "Unfortunately that has happened." "What is to be done?" the Captain muttered, mechanically. Black-deer rose. "Let the Palefaces listen," he said, majestically; "a Sachem is about to speak." The Canadian tried to interpose, but the Chief sternly imposed silence on him. "My father has been deceived; he is a just warrior, his head is grey; the Wacondah has given him wisdom; the Snake Pawnees are also just; they wish to live in peace with my father, because he is innocent of the fault with which he is reproached, and for which another must be rendered responsible." The commencement of this speech greatly surprised the Chief's hearers; the young mother especially, on hearing the words, felt her anxiety disappear, and joy well up in her heart again. "The Snake Pawnees," the Sachem continued, "will restore to my father all the merchandize he extorted from him; he, for his part, will pledge himself to abandon the hunting-grounds of the Pawnees, and retire with the Palefaces who came with him; the Pawnees will give up the vengeance they wished to take for the murder of their brothers, and the war hatchet will be buried between the Redskins and the Palefaces of the West. I have spoken." After these words there was a silence. His hearers were struck with stupor: if the conditions were unacceptable, war became inevitable. "What does my father answer?" the Chief asked presently. "Unhappily, Chief," the Captain answered sadly, "I cannot consent to such conditions, that is impossible; all I can do is to double the price I paid previously." The Chief shrugged his shoulders in contempt. "Black-deer was mistaken," he said, with a crushing smile of sarcasm; "the Palefaces have really a forked tongue."