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"Had a good sleep, Peigan?" Kars demanded, "Him sleep plenty, boss." "Good." Kars turned and glanced out over the great volume of water passing down the river in a ponderous tide. Peigan Charley waited in mute, unquestioning fashion for what was to come. Presently Kars turned back to his trusted henchman. He began to talk rapidly.
His heart was without mercy where his interests were threatened. These creatures were a wolf pack, from his view-point, and he yearned to shoot them down as such. Like Peigan Charley his desire was that every shot should sink deeply into the bowels of the enemy. In a moment of lull Bill dragged a wounded man off the embankment at Kars' side. Kars withdrew his searching gaze from the dark beyond.
We do not wish to quarrel, but if they are not delivered up at once, the Pale-faces and the Peigans will not be friends." Upon this the Indian chief again stood forward and said, "The Peigans are not double-tongued. They have not seen Pale-faces till to-day. They can say no more." Without moving hand or foot, Cameron then said in a firm tone, "The first Peigan that moves shall die!
"The limit! An' they'll need a big bank roll of fight to call my hand." Half an hour later Peigan Charley was surprised into wakefulness under the southern embankment, where he had fallen asleep over his pipe. His boss was standing over him, gazing down at him with steady, gray, unsmiling eyes. The scout was sitting up in a moment. He was not yet certain what the visitation portended.
Even the elderly breed cook at the cook-house was claimed, though his only weapons were an ancient patterned revolver and a pick-haft he had snatched up. Fifteen men in all he was able to collect and at the head of them he rushed for the battle-ground. Nor was he a moment too soon. Kars' vigor was rapidly exhausting itself. Peigan Charley was fighting with a demoniac fury, but weakening.
After a short pause he continued "The chief is wrong when he says there are Pale-faces in the Peigan camp. The Peigans are not at war with the Pale-faces; neither have they seen any on their march. The camp is open. Let the Pale-faces look round and see that what we say is true." The chief waved his hand towards his warriors as he concluded, as if to say, "Search amongst them.
Meanwhile Joe had rubbed and kicked himself into a state of animation, exclaiming that he felt as if he wos walkin' on a thousand needles and pins, and in a few minutes they were ready to accompany their overjoyed deliverer back to the Peigan camp. Crusoe testified his delight in various elephantine gambols round the persons of his old friends, who were not slow to acknowledge his services.
But then his neglected wound was causing him infinite pain, and the loss of blood aggravated it by a feeling of utter weariness. The fire spluttered just beyond the door of the tent. Its cheerful light supported the efforts of the kerosene lamp within. Peigan Charley squatted over its friendly warmth, his lean hands outheld to its flickering blaze in truly Indian fashion.
At length Cameron stood up, and said to his men in a quiet tone, "Be ready, lads, for instant action. When I give the word 'Up, spring to your feet and cock your guns; but don't fire a shot till you get the word." He then stepped forward and said, "The Peigan warriors are double-tongued; they know that they have hid the Pale-face prisoners.
Wait till Charley gets back." Peigan Charley was squatting on his haunches holding out the palms of his lean hands to the warming blaze of the fire. Darkness had shut down upon the gloomy world about them. The air was chill. The fire was more than welcome. Kars was sitting adjacent to his faithful servant, and Bill was on the other side of him.
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