e to
go; and so they prepared for the journey. An Indian will travel by night
as readily as by day, and it was night when these men left the tent of
Tahakooch.

"We will go to the fort," said the host, "in order to get provisions for
your journey."

The party, three in number, went to the fort, and knocked at the gate for
admittance. The man on watch at the gate, before unharring, looked from
the bastion over the stockades, to see who might be the three men who
sought an entrance. It was bright moonlight, and he noticed the shimmer
of a gun-barrel under the blanket of Tahakooch. The Sircies were provided
with some dried meat, and the party went away. The Sircies marched first
in single file, then followed Tahakooch close behind them; the three
formed one line. Suddenly, Tahakooch drew from beneath his blanket a
short double-barrelled gun, and discharged both barrels into the back of
the nearest Sircie. The bullets passed through one man into the body of
the other, killing the nearest one instantly. The leading Sircie, though
desperately wounded, ran fleetly along the moonlit path until, faint and
bleeding, he fell. Tahakooch was close behind; but the villain's hand
shook, and four times his shots missed the wounded wretch upon the
ground. Summoning up all his strength, the Sircie sprung upon his
assailant; a hand-to-hand struggle ensued; but the desperate wound was
too much for him, he grew faint in his efforts, and the villain Tahakooch
passed his knife into his victim's body. All this took place in the same
year during which I reached Edmonton, and within sight of the walls of
the fort. Tahakooch lived only a short distance away, and was a daily
visitor at the fort.

But to recount the deeds of blood enacted around the wooden walls of
Edmonton Would be to fill a volume. Edmonton and Fort Pitt both stand
within the war country of the Crees and Blackfeet, and are consequently
the scenes of many conflicts between these fierce and implacable enemies.
Hitherto my route has led through the Cree country, hitherto we have seen
only the prairies and woods through which the Crees hunt and camp; but my
wanderings are yet far from their end. To the south-west, for many and
many a mile, lie the wide regions of the Blackfeet and the mountain
Assineboines; and into these regions I am about to push my way. It is a
wild, lone land guarded by the giant peaks of mountains whose snow-capped
summits lift themselves 17,000 feet above th