"What does my brother mean?" the Apache went on with the greatest air of surprise he could assume.
"I speak the truth, and my brother is well aware of it," Black-deer answered; "why should we thus try to deceive each other? We have been too long acquainted. Let my brother listen to me: the Antelope Comanches are not, as the Apaches suppose them, inexperienced children, they know for what purpose my brother has come to their winter atepetl."
"Ohé!" the Chief said, "I hear a mocking-bird singing in my ears, but I do not at all understand what it means."
"Perhaps so, but to remove my brother's doubt I will speak to him frankly."
"Can my brother do so?" the Apache continued, ironically.
"The Chief shall judge:—For some moons past the Buffalo Apaches have been trying to take a brilliant revenge on the Comanches for a defeat the warriors of my nation inflicted on them, but the Apaches are chattering old women who possess no craft; the Comanches will give them petticoats and send them to cut wood for them in the forests."
The Chief's eyebrows were almost meeting at this crushing insult; a flash of fury burst from his eyes, but still he managed to overpower his feelings. He drew himself up with supreme majesty and folded himself in his buffalo robe.
"My brother, Black-deer, forgets to whom he is speaking," he said; "Blue-fox is the envoy of his nation to the Comanches, he has sought shelter under the totem of the Antelopes and smoked their sacred calumet; his person must be respected."
"The Apache Chief is mistaken," Black-deer replied, with a disdainful smile; "he is not the envoy of a brave nation, but only the spy of a pack of savage dogs. While Blue-fox tries to deceive the Comanche Sachems, and lull them to sleep in a treacherous serenity, the Apache dogs are hidden like moles in the tall grass, awaiting the signal which will surrender their defenceless enemies into their hands."
Blue-fox looked round the calli, and bounding like a jaguar, rushed on his foeman, brandishing his knife.