Buffalo Bill had to chuckle over this. He couldn’t help it. He saw through the whole game of Bennett’s, and it amused him.
“No, the Long Hair shall not fight the medicine chief,” declared the girl earnestly.
“And why not?” demanded Bennett, with continued haughtiness.
“Because if they fought, the white man would wear the medicine chief’s scalp at his belt,” declared the young girl. “The white man shall go his way, bring his brothers to bury the paleface dead, and then deliver himself to Oak Heart, as he has promised.”
“And you can make up your mind, Boyd Bennett, that she says one very true thing,” declared Buffalo Bill. “Whenever we do fight, you’ll go under! Mark that! I’ll run you down yet and nail your scalp to the wall of Fort Advance as a warning to all horse-thieves, stage-robbers, and deserters!”
The White Antelope spoke quickly before the wrathful Bennett could reply to this challenge:
“Let the paleface go to his big chief. There is his horse. Yonder is his weapon. Mount, Pa-e-has-ka, and away!”
“Aye, girl,” said Cody, in English; “but what will happen to this poor young man if I go, leaving that brute here? He will tear the scalp from Danforth’s head as soon as my back, and yours, are turned.”
“That he shall not!” exclaimed the White Antelope.
“You do not know his treachery,” said Buffalo Bill, who knew that the very deed was in Bennett’s mind.