It was their confidence in his brains rather than in his bones and muscles which made his followers obey him, and they were justified in this instance, as they had been in a great many others. The greetings between the two leaders were brief and stern, and the first question of old Two Knives was: "Pale-faces begin fight. What for shoot Lipans?"
"Big lie. Lipans take our camp. Tie up our men. Steal our horses. Ride out in war-paint. Pale-faces kill them all."
The chief understood what sort of men he had to deal with, but his pride rebelled.
"All right. We kill prisoners right away. Keep camp. Keep horse. Kill all pale-faces."
"We won't leave enough of you for the Apaches to bury. Big band of 'em coming. Eat you all up."
"The Lipans are warriors. The Apaches are small dogs. We are not afraid of them."
"You'd better be. If you had us to help you, now, you might whip them. There won't be so many of you by the time they get here. Pale-faces are good friends. Bad enemies. Shoot straight. Kill a heap."
Captain Skinner saw that his "talk" was making a deep impression, but the only comment of the chief was a deep, guttural "Ugh!" and the Captain added: "Suppose you make peace. Say have fight enough. Not kill any more. Turn and whip Apache. We help."
"What about camp? Wagon? Horse? Mule? Blanket? All kind of plunder?"
"Make a divide. We'll help ourselves when we take the Apache ponies. You keep one wagon. We keep one. Same way with horses and mules—divide 'em even. You give up prisoners right away. Give 'em their rifles and pistols and knives."