The crisp autumn night had not reached its turn when the full moon climbed from behind the straggling clouds obscuring her face, into the clear air above, and shone down on the , with the same calm with which it had shone during the ages before the foot of a white man had rested on the soil of our country. Here and there, at widely-separated points, as the moved toward the zenith, could be seen the star-like twinkles of light which showed where the settlements had been planted by the pioneers. At , too, miles away from the clearings, could be the of the hunters' camp-fires, where the men had lain down wrapped in their blankets, and to sleep the sleep of health. Still further away, by the side of some calmly flowing river or , were the tepees of the wild Indians. Mountain, forest and stream made up the landscape, that was by the moon on the night when Fred Linden and Terry Clark lay down in by the fire in the , and Deerfoot the Shawanoe took upon himself the duty of as a sentinel over them.  
It was not yet midnight when the figure of a Indian emerged like a shadow from the little gully which marked the course of the tiny stream in front of the camp. Just at the point where he appeared, a few rays of the moonlight found their way among the limbs, and added impressiveness to his appearance. A glance would have told that he had approached at the most stealthy gait of which he was capable, and was still using all the skill at his command.
 
Finding himself within the faint light of the moon, he straightened up, like one who is not certain of his surroundings and is using his eyes and ears to their utmost. in this manner he showed himself to be a full-grown in middle life, of strong limbs176 and frame, and in the usual dress of his people.
 
The long, coarse hair about the shoulders, some of the having fallen forward in front of the chest, at the time his head drew it over while in a crouching . It grew so low on his forehead that no more than an inch was between the roots and shaggy . Beneath these the eyes glittered like those of a snake. The ugly features were made more ugly by the different colored paints—most of it black—that was daubed over them, and the was distorted by a recently produced.
 
The breast and arms were covered by deerskin, a fringe running down in front to the belt, which held his tomahawk. The horn-handled knife was tightly grasped in his right hand. Below the belt was breechcloth, followed by leggins and moccasins, but it was noticeable that he carried no rifle with him.
 
Perhaps you have guessed the reason; he had none to carry, for he was the Wolf who had been deprived of his valuable weapon on the day before by Deerfoot the Shawanoe.177
 
As was learned in due time, the Winnebago, after being by Deerfoot, had made all haste to rejoin his band, that were encamped at no great distance from Greville. When he told his brother of the to which he had been subjected, they were as rampart as he for revenge. They were on the point of starting for a settlement, intending to await the chance to shoot down some of the unsuspecting people, when the leader, a man of iron will, interposed.
 
He said that according to the story of the Wolf himself, his gun had been taken from him by a single warrior. A Winnebago ought to be ashamed to confess such a thing, and the only way by which the Wolf could himself was to recover his gun unaided by any of his people. Let him come back to the party with his rifle and then they would risk their lives a dozen times over to repay the young Shawanoe and his youthful friend (they knew nothing about Fred Linden) for the insult they had put upon one of the leading warriors of the Winnebago tribe.
 
You can well understand how this decision was to the Wolf, but there was no help for it. The warrior who gave the order was not only the leader of the company, but the principal chief of the tribe. No one dared to dispute his command, and he intimated that it was not only necessary for the Wolf to recover his gun in order to the services of the rest, but his standing at home would be compromised if he went back without his rifle and the story that it had been taken from him by a single warrior of another tribe.
 
From this you will understand the eagerness with which the Wolf set out to the weapon.
 
The fact that Fred Linden and Terry Clark left Greville the next morning after the affair, mixed matters to that extent that, for a time, the Winnebago was at fault. It was his intention to prowl around the settlement, awaiting his chance, for he suspected that Deerfoot had gone with the lad who had given the Wolf such a blow in the face; but the discovery of the footprints of the two boys leading to the southward mystified the Indian. He was quite close to the creek, and the sun had crossed the at the time this discovery was made. It was natural that he s............