ile one might have shrunk from stirring
the anger of the famous Delaware, the two together did not hesitate to
run counter to his wishes. They refused to be dissuaded by Red Wolf.

They remained apart from the girl for ten minutes, earnestly conversing,
while she could not overhear a word.

Finally one of the three--a Seneca--turned about and walked away, as if
impatient with the dispute. He took a course leading from the stream,
and deeper into the woods.

Linna noticed the curious act, but, great as was her acumen for one of
her years, she did not suspect its meaning. It would have been passing
strange had she done so, for the movement was meant to deceive her and
bring the disputation to an end.

The couple remaining walked to where Linna awaited them. The Seneca
turned aside and sauntered to the carcass of the bear as if that had
more interest just then for him.

"What will Omas do if my brother warriors take your friends back to the
other river, but Red Wolf does not help?"

"He will strike them down with his tomahawk; my father, Omas, is a great
warrior."

The black eyes flashed as the girl proudly uttered these words, and she
looked defiantly in the painted face towering above her.

"But what will he do with Red Wolf?"

"He will strike down Red Wolf, because he is a coward, and did not keep
all harm from his white friends."

This intimation that the Delaware could not shelter himself behind the
plea of neutrality, but must be either an active friend or foe, was a
little more than he could accept. While he held Omas in wholesome dread,
he dared not array himself against the two Senecas, who were determined
not to spare the hapless fugitives.

Red Wolf was a fair specimen of his tribe, who, as I have stated, were
beaten by the Iroquois. These conquerors, indeed, carried matters with
so high a hand that they once forbade the Delawares to use firearms, but
made them keep to the old fashioned bow and arrow.

Red Wolf, therefore, having squared accounts, so to speak, with his
present companions, was anxious to win the good will of Linna, and
thereby that of her fierce parent, who was a hurricane in his wrath, and
likely to brain Red Wolf before he could explain matters.

"Omas is the greatest warrior of the Delawares," he said to Linna; "Red
Wolf and he are brothers. But the Senecas will not listen to the words
of Red Wolf: they love not Omas as does Red Wolf."

The Delaware child now found herself in