“Where?”
“In our camp; and you’ll see how if you listen to what I tell you.”
Sam then told the Indian of our road, to which they had no objection, and of our meeting with the Apaches. As he ended he said: “I wondered to see the two chiefs alone, and decided they were buffalo-hunting and had parted from their followers for a little time, but now I see it all. They were out reconnoitring, and the fact that the two heads of the tribe made this ride themselves shows they considered it an important matter. Now they will thirst for a double vengeance: on you, and on us for Kleki-Petrah’s murder. They will send a smaller band against us than against you, and the chief and his son will be with the former. After we have shown you our camp, that you may find it again, you will go back to your chief, tell him all I have said, and he will come with his two hundred braves to wait for Intschu-Tschuna with his little band. We are twenty strong, and of course will help you, and it will be child’s play to capture the Apaches. It is like having the whole tribe to have the chiefs, for you can demand of them what you will. Does my brother see it all?”
“Yes; my white brother’s plan is very good, and we will start at once to reach his camp before dark.”
We mounted and galloped towards the camp, cutting across by a shorter route, since it was no longer necessary to follow the trail. I was shocked at Sam Hawkins and very angry with him. Winnetou, the noble Winnetou, and his father were to be betrayed into a trap, which if successful would destroy them! How could Hawkins have formed such a scheme? I tried in vain to get him apart from the Kiowas to ask an explanation; but he seemed to suspect my intention, and stuck close to the Fox, which made me angrier than ever.
When we got into camp I sprang from my horse, and lay down on the grass in no very happy frame of mind. Disregarding all my signals to him, Sam had taken the Indians to our men, who were in a high state of delight when they learned they had come in friendship and there was no longer any reason for our fearing the Apaches.
After the Kiowas had been hospitably received and entertained, Sam came to me for the first time. “You have a long face to-night,” he said. “Is it real indigestion or mental colic? I suspect it’s the latter; open your heart to me and I’ll cure you.”
“I’d be glad if you could, Sam, but I doubt it.”
“Yes, I can; only try me.”
“Tell me, then, how Winnetou struck you?”