"Good!" Mr. Percy said. "We shall have them asking for terms
to-morrow."
Four of the unwounded men were now placed as a guard at the mouth
of the gorge, the others retiring further into it, so as to be
beyond the dead Indians, who lay there literally in piles.
The morning broke over the white men occupied in the burial of
their two fallen companions, and upon the Indians assembled at a
short distance beyond the village. The men sat upon the ground in
sullen despair; the women wailed and wrung their hands.
Now that it was day, they could see how terrible had been their
loss. Upward of sixty of their number were missing. The Stag had
fallen, as had several of the most valiant braves of the tribe.
Presently the Raven rose from the midst of the warriors. His
absence the preceding evening had not been noticed; and although
all knew that he had taken no part in the fight, this was
considered natural enough, when his advice to give up the captive
had been rejected.
"My brothers," he began, "the Great Spirit is very angry. He has
hidden his face from his children. Yesterday he blinded their eyes
and made them foolish; last night he made them as water before the
white men. Why were the ears of the chiefs closed to the words of
the Raven? If the Raven had set out with the little White Bird, the
great white chief would have been glad, and the hatchet would have
been buried in peace.
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