ief----"

"Ha!" interrupted Thunder-maker, hissing the exclamation through his
teeth, for even now he felt his victims slipping through his hands. "Do
not listen, brothers! They are evil spirits--they speak magic words
against which nothing prevails. They have forked tongues that dart as
fire. Ugh! I spit upon them--dogs!"

The Englishmen met the verbal onslaught as firmly as a rock resists a
wave, and Arnold did not so much as look towards the madman, but
resumed, in the same even tones as before.

"Who are you, redmen? Are you dogs, to be beaten to obey the first loud
voices? Shall the howling wolf put fear into your hearts, to drag down a
prey that he dares not attack alone? Or are you children of your
rightful chief? Who is chief of the Dacotahs--Thunder-maker or Mighty
Hand?"

"The fiery totem is on the breast of Mighty Hand," answered one of the
warriors. The hubbub had fallen, and all were listening intently--partly
with the native courtesy that forbids the rude interruption of speech,
and partly because the better self was beginning to replace the moment's
frenzy.

"Ah," resumed Arnold with a smile, "I see that the understanding of the
pale-face was wrong. We thought that the chief was Thunder-maker, as you
hastened to obey _his_ words."

"Thunder-maker great medicine----" began Swift Arrow, when the former
speaker rejoined--

"Then he would make himself great chief. Will you braves suffer this
insult to the wearer of the fiery totem?"

"Ka--Kawin!" was the chorus that met this question, and the dark looks
that had been directed towards the Englishmen but a little while since
were now turned towards the defeated Medicine Man, who was standing
sullen and silent.

But Thunder-maker was not yet conquered, though he was apparently
humbled. To give him his due, he was a man of wonderful resource, and
when he saw that the tide was turning against him he was quick to meet
the occasion.

"My brothers, listen not to the words of Thunder-maker," he said
quietly, and with a pretence of sad emotion that he had failed to
influence the other Indians to take the right course. "Did not
Thunder-maker say that these evil spirits have tongues of magic? Did he
not say that no weapon could prevail against those magic words? But let
it be as my red brothers wish. Mighty Hand rest in teepee. He not come
from tent at night, unless the war-cry call him. So let it be as
these--dogs--say. Let them rest in their tent to-night