Groups of warriors gathered and broke, voices
rose; and shrill yells began to cut above the melee of the noise.
From time to time a brave would come running out of the bustle and,
stopping near, glare ferociously at the captives. Twice a hatchet came
flittering through the firelight, its bright blade flashing as it
circled, to fall perilously close, and several times a squaw or two
prodded one or the other with a moccasined toe.
Once a young brave, his black eyes alight with devilishncss, sprang out
from the bushes behind and caught McElroy's face in a pinching clasp of
fingers. With one bound the factor was on his feet and had dealt the
stripling a blow which sent him sprawling with his oiled head in a
squaw's fire. Instantly his long feather was ablaze and his yelp of
dismay brought forth a storm of derisive yells of laughter.
McElroy sat quietly down again.
"It has begun, M'sieu," he said grimly.
All night the liquor circled among the savages, as the spirit fired the
brains in their narrow skulls the aproar became worse. A huge fire was
built in the centre of the camp, tom-toms placed beside it in the hands
of old men, and, forming in a giant circle, the braves began a dance.
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