“And that one coming from the trees if the Apachés should find it,” said Joses, grinning. “Well, you are a clever one, Beaver, and no mistake.”
To put the chiefs words in plain English:
“We had only just got into cover when we heard the firing begin very sharply, and knowing that there was not a moment to lose, we backed slowly in among the trees till it grew stony, and our moccasins made no sign, and then my young man stepped down, and we crept from cover to cover, stopping to listen to the yelling and howling of the dogs, when they found only our feathers; and then we seemed to see them as they rushed off over the plain, meaning to catch us before we were in safety. But the dogs are like blind puppies. They have no sense. They could not find our trail. They never knew that we were behind them in the forest; and there we hid, making ourselves a strong place on the edge of the canyon, where we could wait until they had gone; and when at last they had gone, and all was safe, we came on, and we are here.”
“They wouldn’t have escaped you like that, would they, Beaver?” said Bart, after shaking hands once more warmly, and telling him how glad he was to see him back.
“Escaped me?” said the Beaver, scornfully; “there is not one of my young men who would have been trifled with like that.”
This he said in the Indian tongue, and there was a chorus of assenting ejaculations.
“But the Apachés are blind dogs, and children,” he went on, speaking with bitter contempt. “They fight because they are so many that one encourages the other, but they are not brave, and they are not warriors. The young men of the Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth are all warriors, and laugh at the Apachés, for it takes fifty of them to fight one of my braves.”
He held up his hand to command silence after this, and then pointed out into the plain.
“Can you see anything, Joses?” whispered Bart.
“Not a sign of anything but dry buffler grass and sage-brush. No; it’s of no use, Master Bart, I’ve only got four-mile eyes, and these Injun have got ten-mile eyes. Natur’s made ’em so, and it’s of no use to fight again it. ’Tis their natur to, and it arn’t our natur to, so all we can do is to use good medicine.”