“Where?” asked Bob, half incredulously.
“Why, sometimes the government gives permission to the Indians to go out in traveling Wild West shows, and often at the exhibitions there’ll be an airship flight. Some of the Indians may have seen one, and come back to tell the others about it. In that case they wouldn’t show much surprise. But, at the same time, if they had never seen one, and if we should suddenly sprout wings, and begin flying about ourselves, they wouldn’t show any curiosity. It’s part of their training, I guess.”
But now, after the first shock of what must have been a surprise was over, the Indians seemed disposed to be friendly enough. They evidently saw that the party of whites was unarmed—at least they had no weapons in their hands, though the Indians did, as the boys and their friends could see when a breeze blew their blankets aside, disclosing the stocks of rifles held under the gay coverings.
One of the Blackfeet—evidently the leader—approached the group of whites who stood in front of the airship, and, holding up his hand, with the palm outward, an almost universal sign of peace, gravely uttered one word:
“How!”
“How!” replied Harvey Brill, and then, to the no small surprise of the boys, the old miner began a string of guttural words that caused the faces of the Indians to light up. They were being addressed in their own tongue.
“I didn’t know you could sling Blackfeet talk,” said Jim, when his partner had finished.
“Oh, I’m not much good at it, but I can manage to carry on a little conversation. It’s just as I expected, these chaps have left the reservation. They say they don’t like it there—too small,—and they want to live freer. They’re out for a good time.”
“And does that mean trouble for us?” asked Jerry.
“Well, it may and it may not. The Indians have been cooped up for a long time, and they’ve lost much of their wildness. But it never all dies out, and, once they feel that they are free—even though they know they may be punished for what they do—they may go on a rampage again—just for fun, as they think.”