“But the warriors come in and tell how Pa-e-has-ka has killed their comrades, scalped their brothers, and laughed at them for squaws. Will the Sioux braves let the paleface dog longer kick dirt in their faces? Is he not now near their village, and yet no warrior brings in his scalp, because he is under the protection of the White Antelope?”
A murmur arose from the old men about the council circle.
“Let my medicine braves seek his trail and bring him alive into the presence of the great chief, and the Death Killer will show him how the Pa-e-has-ka will weep like a squaw when he is bound to the torture-stake.”
This speech of the renegade excited the Indians to frenzy. There was no longer any possibility of restraining the young men. A hundred warriors took the trail with the avowed intention of bringing in the Long Hair.
When Red Knife was found dead upon the bluff overlooking the camp there was considerable wonder expressed. The unfortunate scion of the Crow family had lost caste, it was true, but why he should have been killed by the supposedly lurking white man—the Red Knife had gone from the camp unarmed—even the redskins themselves could not understand. As the murders increased Bennett grew louder in his objurgations against Long Hair.
From the hour of his disappointment upon the gory field where Danforth and his band had met their doom, the renegade had thirsted for revenge upon the scout. He had secretly despatched a noted warrior to meet and kill Buffalo Bill on his return; but having not again seen or heard of this brave, Bennett feared that he had come to grief at the hands of the old Indian fighter.
The medicine chief did not wish Buffalo Bill to really appear before Oak Heart and the old chiefs of the tribe. He was not at all sure what the outcome of such a venture might be. Indians admire bravery and boldness above all other virtues, and Bennett feared the dashing scout might influence the tribe against him, too.
For defending the scout and permitting him to go free upon his pledge to return, the renegade had not forgiven the White Antelope. Yet he knew the influence she held in the tribe, that upon account of her having been born with yellow hair, and growing up far more beautiful than any maiden of the Sioux, she was regarded as a favored child of the Great Spirit, and that should he cross her will he might lose the power he had gained over the tribesmen.
He had hoped, too, to win the Indian maiden for his lodge, when he first became familiar with the tribe; but she had treated his advances with disdain, and this was a second reason why he felt revengeful toward her. To get any redskin to aid him in a plot against White Antelope, he knew would be impossible; yet he did not despair of either conquering the proud girl, or getting rid of her altogether. At least, he desired to keep her away from the camp and the council if Buffalo Bill were brought in; otherwise, she might disturb all his plans and aid in the release of the white man.
Therefore the medicine chief watched the teepee of the white queen keenly. When he saw her mount her pony and gallop out of the village, and past the guards which encircled it, Boyd Bennett followed secretly. White Antelope, accustomed to going where and how she pleased, and having unbounded confidence in her own prowess, rode to the top of a ridge some distance from the encampment.