“How dare you raise your hand against us who are your friends?”
“Friends! You don’t believe that yourself when you say it.”
“I do believe it; have we not smoked the pipe of peace together?”
“Yes, but we can’t trust this peace. Is it customary for friends to insult one another?”
“Yet your chief insulted Old Shatterhand. See, he begins to move.”
Tangua, whom Stone and Parker had laid down again, raised himself, looking at us at first as though he did not feel sure what had happened, then he recovered consciousness perfectly and cried: “Take off these bands.”
“Why did you not listen to my request?” I asked. “You can’t give orders here.” He gave me a look of rage, and snarled:
“Silence, boy, or I’ll tear your eyes out.”
“Silence is more fit for you than for me,” I answered. “You insulted me, and I knocked you down. Old Shatterhand does not let go unpunished him who calls him a toad and a white dog.”
“I will be free in a moment. If you do not obey me, my warriors shall wipe you from off the earth.”
“You’d go first. Hear what I have to say. There stand your people; if one of them moves a foot without permission, my knife goes into your heart. How!”
I set the knife-point against his breast. He saw that he was in our power, and could not doubt that I would fulfil my threat. There was a pause, during which he seemed to long to annihilate us with his wildly rolling eyes; then he tried to control his rage, and asked more mildly:
“Nothing except what I have already told you: that the Apaches shall not die by torture.”
“Do with them later what you will, but while we are with you nothing must happen to them.”
Again he considered a while in silence. Through the war-paint on his face we saw pass over it varying expressions of anger, hatred, and malice. I expected that the contest of words between us would be long, so wondered not a little when he said: “It shall be as you wish; yes, I will do more than that if you will fulfil the condition I will make.”
“First I want to tell you that you need not think I fear your knife. If you stabbed me, you would be torn to shreds in a moment by my warriors. No matter how strong you are, you cannot fight two hundred foes. So I laugh at your threat to stab me. If I told you I would not do as you wish, you could do nothing to me. Nevertheless the Apache dogs shall not be tortured; I will even promise not to kill them if you will fight in a life-and-death combat for them.”