"U-wagh!" ejaculated the chief, evincing some astonishment himself, "The Apache chiefs were expected by the great pale hunter?"
"They jess was," answered the other laconcially.
"Arrrh!" sighed the Indian with pretended awe and an insinuating smile. "The hunter has met _the Book medicine men_ (preachers, missionaries) in the land of the beaver and white bear--he has been initiated into their lodge--he has a heap big medicine, he knows everything."
"The chief is making merry, he is no longer straight with his friend. Whether I carry good or bad medicine, it don't help me much in this nick, as my brother ought to know."
"The Tiger Cat has been 'playing--,' with the Spaniards!" said the Apache, with an emphasis on the English word he used, which caused the hotelkeeper to shrink, "And a cloud has settled on his mind. He cannot make out what the white hunter is driving at. He looks. He see _Nada_--nothing."
"If one of them stirs a finger towards me, shoot into the mass," whispered Oliver, rising leisurely, to his comrade.
He left the table, and strode up to the Indians, among whom he stopped, his back to the edge of the table they disdained, leaning on his rifle, of which the beauty and value (for a breechloader is a miracle to their eyes) made their nervous tongues lick their thin upper lip and thick lower one like a snake when the game is presented.
"See here, chief," said he, "the Ocelot has hearing as fine as they make 'em, and the faintest sounds tell their story in his ear. Did I not know you and your cavalyada were down to'rds the Smoking Mountain, and have I not heard the amble of those mules out thar, a-toting a litter between them? In that litter is a white woman. I'm atter her, for her family's sake--what's the price of the captive?"
The Indians exchanged a look of amazement, but they were not disconcerted. Indeed, Tiger Cat answered without wincing:
"Who can make (dead) meat of the white hunter? Beside the Ocelot, the Tiger Cat is a prairie cricket."
"Speak out plain, then, chief. If you have the woman along with you, guarded by your _soldiers_ (the young warriors) so carefully, it is to claim much price. What's the figure?"
"The Ocelot has all the wit of the palefaces, all the cunning of the red men. The Tiger Cat does not debate. He has a captive of worth--ay, 'the purest of pearl' is worth her weight in dressed buffalo robes. But the prize is his. Why should the Ocelot hunger for the prey of the Tiger Cat?"