Meacham is in charge of the council talk, and finally sits down near the fire, and Captain Jack takes a seat directly opposite him, and so close that their knees almost touch. The council talk begins.
Meacham says, “We have come to-day to hear what you have to propose. You sent for us, and we are here to conclude the terms of peace, as your messengers of yesterday requested.”
To this Captain Jack replies, “We want no more war. We are tired, and our women and children are afraid of the soldiers. We want them taken away, and then we can make peace.”
Meacham says, “Gen. Canby is in charge of the soldiers. He is your friend. He came here, because the President sent him to look out for everybody and to see that everything goes on all right.”
Captain Jack replies, “We do not want the soldiers here. They make our hearts afraid. Send them away, and we can make everything all right.”
Meacham continues, “Gen. Canby has charge of the soldiers. He cannot take them away without a letter from the President. You need not be afraid. We are all your friends. We can find you a better home than this, where you can live in peace. If you will come out of the rocks and go with us, we will leave the women and children in camp over on Cottonwood or Hot Creek, and then we shall need the soldiers to make other folks stay away, while we hunt up a new home for you.”
Riddle and his wife are both essential to a careful rendering of the speeches. Riddle is interpreting the Modocs’ speeches into “Boston talk,” and Tobey is translating the white men’s speeches into the “Mo-a-doc-us-ham-konk”—(Modoc language). Hence they are both giving closest attention. Riddle stands now just behind the chairman of the commissioners. Tobey is sitting a little to the left. Gen. Canby seats himself upon a rock on Meacham’s right, about three feet distant. Old Schonchin sits down in front of him. Dr. Thomas bends a sage bush, and, laying his overcoat upon it, also sits on the left and in the rear of Meacham.
Hooker Jim is restless and very watchful; sometimes standing immediately behind Captain Jack, and occasionally walking off a few steps, he scans the rocks in the direction of the soldiers’ camp, and saunters back again, always, however, in front of the white men. Keep an eye on him; he is making now a declaration by his acts that will stop your heart’s blood.
“Joe Lane,” the horse, is just behind Captain Jack, standing a mute and unsuspecting witness of the act now being played.
Watch that demon, Hooker Jim! See him stoop down, and while his eye is fixed on Meacham, he is securing “Joe Lane” to a sage bush, pushing the knot of the halter close to the ground. He slowly rises, and, while patting the horse on the neck, calling him by name, and telling him he is a “fine horse,” still keeping his eye on Meacham, with his left hand he takes the overcoat from the saddle, and with a stealthy, half-hesitating motion, slowly inserts his arm in the sleeve, and then without changing his position or his eyes, quickly thrusts his right arm in the other sleeve, and with a heavy shrug jerks the coat squarely on his shoulders; and, having buttoned it up from top to bottom, smiting his breast with his hand, he says, “Me old man Meacham, now. Bogus, you think me look like old man Meacham?” My dear reader, he does not fasten that horse for Meacham. He does not put on the coat because he is cold, nor merely as a joke. No, he does not mean anything of that kind. He intends to make sure of the horse and coat, and, at the same time, provoke a quarrel, and make the way easy for the bloody attack.