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With so many to lift and pull they were able to remove the entire robe from the giant buffalo, the finest skin that many of them had ever seen. It was so vast that it was a cause of great wonder and admiration. "It belongs," said Xingudan, "to Waditaka, Pehansan and Roka, the three brave warriors who slew the buffalo."
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."
We will need them in the spring to hunt the buffalo." "Of course, Xingudan, we must save the ponies." "How, O Waditaka?" The youth felt a thrill. The chief was appealing to him to show the way and he felt that he must do it. He had already the germ of an idea. "I think I shall have a plan tomorrow, O Xingudan," he said.
He thumped himself twice upon the chest, and then said in a loud, clear voice: "Does anyone here wish to question the merit of my son, Waditaka? Is he not as brave as the bravest, and does he not think further ahead than any other warrior in the village?" Then up spoke old Xingudan and he was sincere. "Your words are as true as if they had been spoken by Manitou himself," he said.
The trace of a liking that had appeared in him had found a response in them. Friendship replies to friendship, and Will, who six months ago would have laughed at the endorsement of blanketed wild men, now felt a thrill of pleasure. But Xingudan as yet said little more. He pointed to the great bear and said: "The skin belongs to Waditaka and Inmutanka. The flesh will be divided among the people."
Old Inmutanka did not awaken him when the dawn came, although most of the people were already at work, curing the meat of the bears and scraping and drying the huge hides. They were also putting more brush and stakes around the great corral for the ponies, and many were already saying it was Waditaka who had saved their horses for them the night before.
Will judged that the largest of them all weighed a full three-quarters of a ton or more, and a most terrific creature he was, with great hooked claws as hard as steel and nearly a foot in length. "One blow of those would destroy the stoutest warrior, Waditaka," said Xingudan. "Our bows and arrows and lances have saved us," said Will.
He, too, had been impressed by the enormous size of the hoof prints, the largest that he had ever seen, but there was no fear, nor even apprehension in his valiant soul. "It is the king of them all," he said. He is but a little distance away, and we need rifles to go against him, but we do not turn back! Do we, Roka? Do we, Waditaka?" "We do not," whispered Roka.
"I cannot help that, as you know, Xingudan." "I do not blame you, but there is something of which Heraka is ignorant." "What is it?" "Waditaka is now the adopted son of the wise and good Inmutanka." "But the orders of Heraka are strict and stern." "The rite of adoption is sacred. Until Waditaka himself chooses to change he is a Sioux and must be treated as a Sioux."
He wore a beautiful deerskin suit which several of the old women had made for him in gratitude for large supplies of food that he had given to them, and he had a splendid overcoat which Inmutanka and he had made of a buffalo robe. The lodge of Inmutanka and Waditaka, who had once been known as Wayaka, became the most attractive in the village.
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