the whole were appeased,
the squaws removed the trenchers and gourd, and the two parties began to
prepare themselves for a subtle trial of their wits.

"Is the face of my great Canada father turned again towards his Huron
children?" demanded the orator of the Delawares.

"When was it ever otherwise?" returned Magua. "He calls my people 'most
beloved.'"

The Delaware gravely bowed his acquiescence to what he knew to be false,
and continued,--

"The tomahawks of your young men have been very red."

"It is so; but they are now bright and dull; for the Yengeese are dead,
and the Delawares are our neighbors."

The other acknowledged the pacific compliment by a gesture of the hand,
and remained silent. Then Magua, as if recalled to such a recollection,
by the allusion to the massacre, demanded,--

"Does my prisoner give trouble to my brothers?"

"She is welcome."

"The path between the Hurons and the Delawares is short, and it is open;
let her be sent to my squaws, if she gives trouble to my brother."

"She is welcome," returned the chief of the latter nation, still more
emphatically.

The baffled Magua continued silent several minutes, apparently
indifferent, however, to the repulse he had received in this his open
effort to gain possession of Cora.

"Do my young men leave the Delawares room on the mountains for their
hunts?" he at length continued.

"The Lenape are rulers of their own hills," returned the other, a little
haughtily.

"It is well. Justice is the master of a redskin! Why should they
brighten their tomahawks, and sharpen their knives against each other?
Are not the pale-faces thicker than the swallows in the season of
flowers?"

"Good!" exclaimed two or three of his auditors at the same time.

Magua waited a little, to permit his words to soften the feelings of the
Delawares, before he added,--

"Have there not been strange moccasins in the woods? Have not my
brothers scented the feet of white men?"

"Let my Canada father come," returned the other evasively; "his children
are ready to see him."

"When the great chief comes, it is to smoke with the Indians in their
wigwams. The Hurons say, too, he is welcome. But the Yengeese have long
arms, and legs that never tire! My young men dreamed they had seen the
trail of the Yengeese nigh the village of the Delawares?"

"They will not find the Lenape asleep."

"It is well. The warrior whose eye is open can see his enemy," said
Magua, once