I had read that Indians call their tobacco “kinnikinnic,” and the knowledge opportunely came back to me now. A second time I filled my mouth with smoke and blew it toward heaven, and continued: “In the west rise the Rocky Mountains, and to the east stretch the plains; on the north roll the seas, and the south is washed by the waters of the great ocean. Were all the land between these points mine I would share it with the warriors of the Kiowas, for they are my brothers. This year may they kill ten times as many buffaloes and fifty times as many grizzly bears as they number. May their corn grow as large as pumpkins, and their pumpkins so great that twenty could be made from one. I have spoken. How!”
These wishes were not very practical, but they seemed to please the Indians as much as if they were already fulfilled. The Fox seized my hand, assured me of his friendship for all time, then took the pipe between his teeth, and smoked in supreme content.
Having brought the Indians into a state of high good humor, Sam said: “My brothers say that the war-hatchet has been dug up between them and the Apaches of the Mascaleros. How long has this been so? and what has ended the peace between them?”
“Since the time two weeks ago, when the Apache dogs killed four of our warriors.”
“That is not your camp, but that of the Mascaleros; what were your warriors doing there?”
The Kiowa did not hesitate to reply candidly: “A band of our braves went at night to capture some of the Apaches’ horses. The vile dogs watch well; they killed our brave men. Therefore we have taken up the war-hatchet.”
So the Kiowas had intended to steal, yet would make the Apaches atone for their defence of their own property. I would have expressed my mind on this conduct, but Sam signalled to me so energetically to be quiet that I obeyed him, and he said: “My brother the Fox is out to spy; when will his braves follow?”
“Tangua, the chief himself, at the head of two hundred braves.”
“And you expect to overcome the Apaches?”
“We will come upon them as the eagle swoops on the heron that has not seen him.”
“My brother is mistaken. The Apaches know that they are to be attacked by the Kiowas.”
The Fox shook his head incredulously, and replied: “How could they know it? Do their ears reach to the tent of the Kiowas?”