o hundred guns with beads
and bells enough to outfit the whole Sioux tribe, we came to terms.
Indeed, the grasping rascals well-nigh cleared out all that was left of
my trading stock; but when I saw they had no intention of fighting, I
held back at the last and demanded the surrender of Le Grand Diable,
Miriam and the child in compensation for La Robe Noire.

Then, they swore by everything, from the sun and the moon to the cow in
the meadow, that they were not responsible for the doings of Le Grand
Diable, who was an Iroquois. Moreover, they vowed he had hurriedly taken
his departure for the north four days before, carrying with him the
Sioux wife, the strange woman and the white child. As I had no object in
arousing their resentment, I heard their words without voicing my own
suspicions and giving over the booty, whiffed pipes with them. But I had
no intention of being tricked by the rascally Sioux, and while they and
the Mandanes celebrated the peace treaty, I saddled my horse and spurred
off for their encampment, glad to see the last of a region where I had
suffered much and gained nothing.

CHAPTER XVIII

LAPLANTE AND I RENEW ACQUAINTANCE

The warriors had spoken truth to the Mandanes. Le Grand Diable was not
in the Sioux lodges. I had been at the encampment for almost a week,
daily expecting the warriors' return, before I could persuade the people
to grant me the right of search through the wigwams. In the end, I
succeeded only through artifice. Indeed, I was becoming too proficient
in craft for the maintenance of self-respect. A child--I explained to
the surly old men who barred my way--had been confused with the Sioux
slaves. If it were among their lodges, I was willing to pay well for its
redemption. The old squaws, eying me distrustfully, averred I had come
to steal one of their naked brats, who swarmed on my tracks with as
tantalizing persistence as the vicious dogs. The jealous mothers would
not hear of my searching the tents. Then I was compelled to make friends
with the bevies of young squaws, who ogle newcomers to the Indian camps.
Presently, I gained the run of all the lodges. Indeed, I needed not a
little diplomacy to keep from being adopted as son-in-law by one
pertinacious old fellow--a kind of embarrassment not wholly confined to
trappers in the wilds. But not a trace of Diable and his captives did I
find.

I had hobbled my horses--a string of six--in a valley some distance from
the camp