Nadoweiswe leaned down from his horse, and spoke rapidly again.
"He says," Tawannears translated, "that he wishes to recover his horses the Blackfeet stole, but that with you to aid him he would likewise go south and raid the pastures of the Apache and the Comanche."
"Tell him," I answered, "to have his warriors remember that a horse does not have to be beaten to be mastered. As for the Blackfeet, tell him in my country they teach their warriors to stampede an enemy's horses by firing the grass behind them."
Nadoweiswe listened to this advice with a look of intense admiration.
"He says," Tawannears gave me his reply, "that you must be much wiser than you look. He is amazed at you. He will do what you say."
And it is a fact that during our short stay with the Teton they honored me as their principal guest, not because I was a warrior, or because I had displayed skill in diplomacy such as many tribes admire, or because I was an orator. No, the quality which they considered admirable was my God-given talent for horse-stealing.
CHAPTER X
THE WOLF-BROTHERS
There were several minutes of silence in the crowded teepee after Tawannears had finished his story.
"Tawannears has made strong the heart of Nadoweiswe," said the old Teton chief at last. "Nadoweiswe will tell the tale of Tawannears' search to all his young men so that their hearts may be made strong, too. If Nadoweiswe were a young warrior he would offer to go on with Tawannears and his white brothers and look for this strange Land of Lost Souls. But Nadoweiswe is an old man, and he is used to riding on horses; and horses could not climb the Sky Mountains which shut in the sun's hiding-place."