"I'm not scared about it," replied Bill, "an' I know you boys ain't, for this is just an emergency arrangement. But I tell you right now, Tom, if there's any fighting an' you don't give me a show I won't like you for it."
I took the bead necklace and hung it in a conspicuous place on the wall, little thinking that we would ever have occasion to use it, and sincerely hoping that we would not; but I felt that both Bill and Tom, who understood Indian ways best, really anticipated trouble with them and were mentally preparing to meet it.
After the departure of our guests next morning each of us went about his accustomed duties as usual.
After several days had passed and nothing had occurred to arouse our uneasiness we gradually regained our accustomed assurance, but I know that while out hunting or skinning wolves I was more keenly watchful than formerly, and several times on returning to camp I had noticed Tom coming down from the nearest bluff with the field-glass in his hand, indicating that he had been scanning the surrounding country.
I noticed, too, that lately, whenever the team was sent over to the fort, in addition to the usual batch of baled wolfskins, Tom was now sending other stuff, such as surplus grain and provisions—anything, in fact, that could be dispensed with in the camp and reduce our outfit, as he said, to "light marching order," for we thought now in a couple of weeks more we would be ready to break up camp and go in.
Of the three, Jack was by far the most indifferent, for, as he said, "It's time enough to bid the divil good morning when you meet him."
Since To hausen's band had located near us we had had frequent visits from some of his people, when the weather was fair, and had struck up quite a profitable trade with them for buffalo robes, dressed deer and antelope skins, with a few otter, beaver, panther, wildcat skins, and the like, paying for them in coffee, sugar, flour, or tobacco. And since returning from his attendance on the old chief Tom made it a point to visit him every few days, ostensibly to see how the old fellow was getting along, but more particularly to try to find out if any intercourse was passing between Satank's band and To hausen's.
To hausen seemed sincere in his efforts to befriend Tom and, so far as he could, kept Tom informed; but for obvious reasons he had to be secret about it. Not much going and coming between the two bands was to be expected, however, for the weather was still quite severe and stormy a great part of the time, the distance between the two camps considerable, and Indian ponies at this season of the year were poor and weak.
In our traffic with the old chief's people we had given them a liberal exchange for their skins and peltries—far more than they would have received from the traders—we being satisfied with about one hundred per cent. profit on the goods we traded them instead of three to four hundred per cent. as was the custom with men regularly engaged in the trade.
The Indians were not slow to see that we were giving them more for their stuff than they usually received from the traders, and our commerce with them increased. Soon we found that we were gathering in so much of this material that it became a serious question how we were going to smuggle it into our storeroom at Fort Larned, or beyond there, without Weisselbaum's knowledge, or, in case we sold our skins to him, how to account for those we had traded from the Indians. He had a trader's license from the government, and we had nothing of the kind. According to law, we were trespassing on his rights, in which the commanding officer at Fort Larned was in duty bound to protect him. When we began trading with the Indians we had not thought of these difficulties, but, having got into it, we determined to bluff it out and trust to luck for some future plan to suggest itself to us for getting through.