Impossible! He would die first! So he said:
"Gray Eagle is my prisoner, and the Pawnee can not have him!"
Without a word White Wolf turned and rode toward his band, and Red Pine returned to his warriors.
White Wolf was a big, fat, burly Indian, who has since become quite well known on the plains as the meanest beggar of them all; one who will steal a blanket or murder a white man for the sake of a drink of whisky. He has became very much demoralized since the time we first met him, demanding the prisoner of the Sioux chief.
Red Pine is not much better, though much younger. He was never known to do an act of kindness, and was by nature cruel and vindictive. Each were, and still are, a type of their respective tribes.
Neither were disposed to wait very long. Red Pine because he was in haste to have it over, believing that he would be the victor, notwithstanding the foe with whom he had to deal was no common one. White Wolf was in a hurry for the same reasons, and also because he was in haste to secure Snowdrop for a wife, as he had no doubt he would.
Both were destined to learn that disappointment is the lot of mankind.
The battle was commenced by the Pawnees discharging a shower of arrows at the Sioux. Then the Sioux returned the compliment, and thus they continued for nearly an hour, not seeming to make much headway, or to cause any very great slaughter. They did yelling enough, however, for an army of twenty thousand men, and this, by the way, is the manner of Indian fighting generally.
Usually, one party or the other will run before that time, but in this case both of the leaders had too much at stake—both wanted the Blackfoot girl.
The warrior who had been left to guard Gray Eagle had taken his captive and started off at the first round between the opposing forces.