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"I was hurt in battle with the white men many, many days' journey away," he said, "and the great chief Heraka, knowing I would not be fit for march and fight for a long time, sent me here to recover and he also sent with me a message for you." "It was in regard to the white youth, Wayaka, our prisoner." "Wayaka has become Waditaka, owing to his great bravery.
"Despite your skill with the bow and arrow you would be devoured before you had gone a mile. The fierce beasts would be in waiting for you and you would no longer have a ring of fire to protect you." "Then what are we to do, Roka? We can't stay here forever within the ring of fire, living on steaks cut from the bull." "Waditaka has become a great young warrior and he thinks much.
"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."
"The youth, Waditaka, the son of Inmutanka, was the greatest warrior of us all when the bears came, and his deeds stand first." Then up spoke the messenger, Roka, also. "It is true," he said. "I witnessed with my own eyes the great deeds of Waditaka. Our chief, Xingudan, must be proud to have such a brave and wise young warrior in his village."
"I think they've been driven out of the Arctic by the great cold, and have migrated south in search of food." "Then they smelled the horses and attacked them." "Truly so, Xingudan, and they or other wild beasts will come again. The ponies are our weakest point. The great meat-eating animals will always attack them." "But we must keep our ponies, Waditaka.
To sleep well every night and to wake every morning as keen for the chase as ever! to have your friends with you always, and to strive with them in the hunt in generous emulation! Aye, Pehansan, that would be the life!" "Some day I shall find the life of which you speak so well, Waditaka! A happy death on the battlefield and lo! I have it!"
"Waditaka big favorite," said Inmutanka when Will showed him the buffalo overcoat. "By and by all old squaws marry him." "What?" exclaimed Will in horror. "Of course," said Inmutanka, grinning slyly. "He make old squaws many presents. Leave venison, buffalo meat, bear meat at doors of their lodges. They marry him in the spring." But Will caught the twinkle in Inmutanka's eyes.
When Will departed for their lodge with Inmutanka, Xingudan said to Roka: "What think you now, Roka, of Waditaka, once Wayaka, a captive youth, but now Waditaka, the brave young Sioux warrior, the adopted son of Inmutanka, who is the greatest curer of sickness among us?"
"That Waditaka be burned to death with slow fire at the stake, and that other tortures of which we know be inflicted upon him. We lost many warriors in battle with the whites and the soul of Heraka was bitter." Old Xingudan leaned his chin on his hand and looked very thoughtfully at the fire that blazed in the centre of the lodge. "The command of Heraka is unjust," he said.
Xingudan knew in his heart that the village might have been overpowered and devoured had it not been for the wit and courage of Waditaka. But he merely said "Waditaka has done well." Will, however, knew that the four words meant much and that the liberty of the village was his.
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