"The Chief is no old woman," he said, "his heart is large; he laughs at the anger of his enemies, and despises the fury which is impotent to affect him."
"We are not your enemies, Chief, we feel no hatred or anger towards you; it is you, on the contrary, who are our enemy. Are you disposed to answer our questions?"
"I could refrain from doing so, were it my good pleasure."
"I do not think so," John Davis remarked, with a grin, "for we have wonderful secrets to untie the tongue of those we cross-question."
"Try them on me," the Indian observed, haughtily.
"We shall see," said the American.
"Stop!" said Loyal Heart. "There is in all this something extraordinary, which I wish to discover, so leave it to me."
"As you please," said John Davis.
The adventurers collected round the Indian, and waited anxiously.
"How is it," Loyal Heart presently went on, "that you, who were sent by the Apaches to treat for peace with the Comanches, were thus leaving the village in the middle of the night, not as a friend, but as a robber flying after the commission of a theft?"