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"The horse herd ... to the west." Nolan evaluated the scene with the eyes of an experienced raider. "Tsoay, Deklay, you take the horses!" They nodded, and began the long crawl which would take them two miles or more from the party to stampede the horses. To the Mongols in those domelike yurts horses were wealth, life itself.
He was careful to speak in English so that the Tatars could hear all he was reporting to his own kind. And the Apaches listened blank-faced, though Tsoay must already have reported much of this. When Travis was done it was Deklay who asked a question: "What have we to do with these people?" And they have weapons such as make our bow cords bits of rotten string, our knives slivers of rust.
But he stood now in the hollow where they had camped, read the sign of overturned stone and bent twig left for him, and knew they would reach the rancheria and report the decision Deklay and the others wanted before he could head them off. Travis slogged on.
As Manulito disappeared Travis summoned the coyotes, putting full effort into getting across one message. Any tribe led by Deklay would be hostile to the mutant animals. They must go into hiding, run free in the wilderness if the gamble failed Travis. Now they withdrew into the bushes but not out of reach of his mind. He did not have too long to wait.
No, but neither did he want growing whispers working about him to cut him off from his people. To every Apache severance from the clan was a little death. He must have those who would back him if Deklay, or those who thought like Deklay, turned grumbling into open hostility. "Tsoay is one quick to learn," Travis agreed. "We go at dawn " "Along the mountain range?" Buck inquired.
The nagunlka-dnat'an, or war chief, often led only on the warpath and had no voice in clan matters save those dealing with a raid. And to have a split now would fatally weaken their small clan. Deklay and those of a like mind might elect to withdraw and not one of the rest could deny him that right. "We shall think on this," Buck said.
Manulito managed to wrench his head to the left so he could see his captor. Travis loosened his grip, got to his feet. Manulito sat up, his face darkly sullen, but he did not reach for his knife. "You will say this to Deklay: The Fox says he is a man of little sense and less courage, preferring to throw stones rather than meet knife to knife as does a warrior.
If either of them could be established as haldzil, or clan leader, they would all be safer. He himself had no aspirations in that direction and dared not push too hard. It had been his initial urging which had brought them as volunteers into the project. Now he was doubly suspect, and especially by those who thought as Deklay, he was considered too alien to their old ways.
Again the scarlet flame of a wound, down his shoulder and forearm this time. Well, there was one trick, he knew. Travis tossed the knife into the air, caught it with his left hand. Deklay was now facing a left-handed fighter and must adjust to that. "Paw, bull, rattle your horns!" Travis cried. "The Fox still shows his teeth!" Deklay recovered from his instant of surprise.
They satisfied themselves that the globe had had no visitors since Buck and Deklay; there was no sign that the ape-things had returned. "From here," Travis said, "the ship doesn't look too bad, almost as if it might be able to take off again." "It might lift," Jil-Lee gestured to the mountaintop behind the curve of the globe "about that far. The tubes on this side are intact."
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