But all that was nothing to the remarkable conduct of Dolores. Ni-ha-be was sure Rita had never before received such a degree of attention and respect from the great cook. She had even seen her adopted sister helped to broiled venison again and again before a morsel had been handed to her, the born heiress of the great chief. Her keen black eyes put on a continual watchfulness and they soon detected other strange things, and so did her quick, suspicious ears. She saw Rita look in the face of Send Warning as if she had known him all her life, and she was sure she had heard both him and Knotted Cord speak to her in the detested tongue of their race.
It was all the work of those miserable talking leaves, and they were therefore the worst kind of "bad medicine." She would have burnt them up if she could, but now they were no longer within her reach. Rita had one, but Send Warning and his young friend had taken possession of the others, and were "listening to them" at every opportunity.
Steve said to Murray that the reading of those magazines made him feel as if he were half-way home again.
"We're anything but that, Steve. What do you think old Many Bears proposed this morning?"
"I can't guess."
"Wants to adopt us into his band. Have us marry Indian wives, and settle down."
"Tell him I'm too young. Can't take care of a squaw."
"So I did, and he answered, 'Ugh! Buy squaw some time. No hurry. Young brave good.'"
"Tell him you don't want a wife, but you'd like to buy a daughter, and keep her for me when I get old enough."
"Steve!"