Stanapat re-entered the wood, followed by his comrade, and went back to the bivouac.
"Is the chief satisfied with his son?" the Indian tasked ere he retired.
"My son has the eyes of a tapir; nothing escapes him."
Swift Elk smiled proudly as he bowed.
"Does my son," the chief continued, in an insinuating voice, "know the palefaces who are entrenched on the hill of Mad Buffalo?"
"Swift Elk knows them."
"Wah!" said the sachem; "my son is not mistaken; he has recognised the trail?"
"Swift Elk is never mistaken," the Indian answered in a firm voice; "he is a renowned warrior."
"My brother is right; he can speak."
"The pale chief who occupies the Rock of Mad Buffalo is the great white hunter whom the Comanches have adopted, and who is called Koutonepi."