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Despite his heavy buffalo robe overcoat he moved a little closer to the fire, and Pehansan and Roka almost unconsciously did the same. They were all sitting, and the great body of the slain bull towered above them. The sound of the wind, as it swept through the gorges, was ferocious like the growling of the beasts with which it mingled. "The spirits of evil are abroad to-night," said Roka.
"We will not call with our voices, Waditaka. Behold how clear the morning comes! It is the light of bright winter and there is no light brighter. The sun is rising over the mountains in a circle of burning gold and all the heavens are filled with its rays." "You're a poet, Roka. The spell has fallen upon you."
And right in his line of vision he saw Chard, who, kneeling amid the foliage of the boulder, was covering Harvey with his rifle; in another instant the supercargo had fired, Roka dropped on one knee and raised his Snider carbine, just as Sam Chard turned to Hendry with a smile upon his handsome, evil face, and waved his hand mockingly towards the prone figure of Harvey.
The roars or fierce yells showed that he had hit, and they heard the sound of heavy bodies being threshed about in the dusk. "We are not eaten but some of our enemies are," said Will. "It would be a good plan, wouldn't it, to slay them whenever we can in order that they may be food for one another?" "It is wisely spoken," said Roka.
"Stay not here with me, Roka of Manhiki," said Harvey, trying hard to speak calmly, though he was suffering the greatest agony from his wound "stay not here, but run, run quickly, so that there may be no more murder done. Give them no mercy." * I.e., one who writes a supercargo or clerk. The mate, chief officer one next in command to a captain.
I am old, Roka, and the old as they draw near to Manitou and all the gods and spirits that people the air, hear many whispers of the future. A voice coming from afar tells low in my ear that before the snow and ice have gone Waditaka, who was born white but who is now a Sioux, the adopted son of Inmutanka, will save us all." "And does Xingudan see that?" "Yes, Roka, I see it."
"The air is full of them and they rush to destroy us, but Manitou has given us the fire with which to defend us." A long yell like that of a cat, but many times louder, came from a point beyond and above them, where a tree of good size grew about fifty yards away. Roka seized a piece of burning wood and held it aloft. "It's a monstrous mountain lion stretched along a bough," he said.
Roka cut fresh pieces from the buffalo and roasted them over one of the fires. "Eat," he said to his comrades. "It is as wearing to watch and wait as it is to march and fight. Eat, even if you are not hungry, that your strength may be preserved."
He picked the shells up carefully, put them into his wide-brimmed leaf hat, which he then tied up in his shirt, and taking his spear again made towards the shore, too pleased at his good fortune to trouble any further about another feke and only anxious to let Roka and Huka see his prizes.
"Be careful about the snowshoes," said Roka. "The buffalo will be among the trees and bushes and when we wound him he will charge. The snowshoes must not become entangled." Will knew that it was excellent advice and he resolved to be exceedingly cautious.
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