"If Black Hawk will watch and let his white brother know what he finds out, it will greatly please the brother of the Captain of the Long Knives."
There was another "Ugh!"—this time with half an inclination of the head, and I went back to the dance satisfied that if there was anything wrong, Black Hawk would discover it.
It was half an hour later when Yorke came to me between the figures of the dance and begged a word with me.
"Jes as soon as yo' can slip out unbeknownst-like," he said, "that thar decent redskin 's waitin' to speak to yo'-all at the kitchen doah. Yo' 's to go down through the house, so 's nobody outside won't see yo'."
I found an opportunity as soon as that dance was over, and going down through the house, with Yorke as my guide, I found Black Hawk waiting, and without a preliminary word, in slow, sententious fashion, he delivered his message.
"Black Hawk say to White Brother, Beware of White Wolf and six Red Dogs. Wear devil's faces. All gone now. Wait for Little White Fawn going home. Black Hawk go home with White Fawn and Fine Dress and Long Knives' brother and Little Medicine-man and Big Black."
I understood his broken sentences very well. The mummers were, as I had half suspected, the chevalier and a band of Osages. They would lie in wait for Pelagie on our way home and capture her if we were off guard. Black Hawk offered his services to guard her on the way home, and I gladly accepted them, for even then the chevalier's band would outnumber us; and while in a hand-to-hand fight I did not doubt we were much the better men, they would have greatly the advantage of us in being able to spring upon us from ambuscade and get the first shot.
"In solitary dignity stood Black Hawk"