“You know,” said the Indian; “the whiskey you took from those men up the lake. We know all about it; that you drove them from their camp and kept the whiskey, and now you are taking it away with you, but you shall not do that. That whiskey was brought here for us and we are going to have it; so give it to us now, or we will take it from you.”
“Look here, my friend,” said Hugh, “you talk like a child. I took no whiskey from those men and I have none with me, and I shall give you none. It is true that we had trouble with these men yesterday and that I sent them away from our camp, but I took no whiskey from them, and if I had done so, I should not give it to you.
“You know me, for you have often seen me in the Piegan camp, and I know you, Wolf Collar, for more than once I have seen you in the Blood camp.
“Why do you come over here to make trouble with people on this side of the line? Do you think that you can do over here what you dare not do over there? You know very well that if you were to act like this to any white man on your side of the line, the Red Coats would soon take you and put you in the jail, perhaps with irons on your feet. You have lived years enough to know better than to act so as to get your young men into trouble.
“Listen to me, my friends,” he said in a louder voice, addressing all the Indians, although most of them were near enough to have heard his conversation with Wolf Collar, “I have just told your leader that I have no liquor with me, and that if I had I should not give it to you; but I have with me here a boy of your own race, a Piegan, who knows what took place last night, and he can tell you, if you do not believe me. Speak to them, Joe,” he said, “and tell them what happened last night.”
Joe began to tell the story of the trouble of the evening before, but before he had said many words, the party was joined by a late comer, who rode up from the river and close to the wagon, crowding his horse through those of the young men, and occasionally, if a horse did not make way for him, striking it fiercely with the quirt, but all the Indians who saw him got out of his way at once.
He was a giant in stature, with a heavy and particularly ferocious face, and rode a beautiful black horse, which seemed too small to bear his immense frame. He rode up to the wagon, roughly pushing Wolf Collar out of the way, and then stretching out his hand to Hugh shook hands with him and said, “My friend, you seem to be traveling. Why do you stop here?”
“Why, hello, Calf Robe,” said Hugh. “I didn’t stop here willingly, but your young men got in my way, and crowded about me, and asked me for whiskey, which I have not got, and which, if I had, I would not give to them. They get too much whiskey now.”
“Why do they ask you for whiskey since all who know you know that you do not drink whiskey, any more than you try to make others drink it?”
“I don’t know,” said Hugh, “but I reckon some of them have seen this morning some whiskey traders up the lake, and they have told the Indians that I took their whiskey.”