Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/92

80 twig brought him up short. Ten yards away to the right a half-naked Indian stepped  toward him. As David turned, the savage’s hand went up in friendly gesture.

“Noicantop?” he called, the Nipmuck equivalent for “How do you?”

“Dock tau he?” (“Who are you?”) returned David sternly.

“Netop.” (“A friend.”)

“Speak English, friend. What you want?”

“Me got um message speak you David man.” The Indian made his way toward David unhurriedly. He was a tall, slim youth of twenty-two or -three, naked to the waist, unarmed save for a hunting-knife at his belt. His scalp-lock was confined in a metal tube some three inches in length above which it  was gathered in a black knot and adorned  with several long feathers of yellow and red. Three strings of black-and-white wampum were about his neck and his girdle was  elaborately worked with colored porcupine  quills. That he was not one of the Natick tribe was evident, for they no longer painted  their bodies whereas this youth showed  many smears of yellow, red, and brown on