"Yet you have that which we require," replied the Seneca.
He pointed to the full quivers that hung at every warrior's back.
"Ho!" laughed the Tonkawa. "So you are weaponless!"
"It is true," answered Tawannears as gently as he had spoken before, "that we have shot away most of our arrows, but we have sufficient to account for you. Will you try us?"
"Why should we believe you?" derided the chief. "Do the Tonkawa trade like the Comanches?"
"What we seek is means to trade better with the Comanches," retorted Tawannears, a shaft which drew grim chuckles from his hearers.
The Tonkawa, for all their debased habits and uncouth manners, possessed the marked sense of humor which all Indians enjoy.
"How many horses will you trade?" asked the chief.
"How many do you need?" countered Tawannears.
The chief surveyed the depleted ranks of his band, and held up his ten fingers and thumbs twice—twenty.