“I doubt if that’ll work; however, I’ll try. Suppose he brings some of his men with him?”
“I’ll leave them to you and Stone and Parker; I’ll take care of Tangua. Have thongs ready to bind him; the thing must be done quietly and quickly.”
“Well, I don’t know how the plan’s going to work, but, as nothing else occurs to me, you shall have your way. We risk our lives, and I have no desire to die, but I think we may come out of it with a black eye.”
He laughed in his usual quiet manner, and went off.
My companions were too far away to have heard what we had been saying, and it never occurred to me to tell them our plan, for I was sure they would have prevented its execution. They valued their own lives more than those of the captive Apaches, and I realized what a risk I ran. But I felt I ought to give Stone and Parker a chance to withdraw if they chose, and asked them if they wanted to take a hand in the game. Stone replied: “What is the matter with you? Do you think we’re sneaks to leave a friend in the lurch? Your scheme is a stroke worthy of a true frontiersman, and we’ll be glad to take a hand; isn’t that so, Will?”
“Yes,” said Parker. “I’d like to see if we four ain’t the fellows to beat two hundred Indians.”
I went on measuring, and did not look back until Stone cried: “Get ready; they’re coming.”
I looked, and saw Sam approaching with Tangua and three other Indians.
“A man for each,” I said. “I’ll take the chief. Throttle them so they can’t scream, and wait till I grab Tangua; don’t move first.”
We went over towards the Indians, and took up our position where a bush screened us from the rest of the Kiowas left to guard the prisoners. The chief’s face was none too friendly, and he said in equally unfriendly tone as he came up: “The pale-face called Old Shatterhand has asked me to come. Have you forgotten I am chief of the Kiowas, and you should have come to me, not I to you?”