Then Winnetou bent down, touched the bloody wound, and asked me in good English: “Who stabbed the beast?”
“Why did not my young white brother shoot him?”
“They are not mine; they were thrown away by these men when they climbed the trees shrieking with terror.”
“Ugh! the low cowards and dogs, to fly like tissue-paper! A man should make resistance, for if he has courage he may conquer the strongest brute. My young white brother has such courage.”
“My son speaks truly,” added the father in as perfect English. “This brave young pale-face is no longer a greenhorn. He who kills a grizzly in this manner is a hero; and he who does it to save those who climb trees deserves thanks, not insults. Let us go to visit the pale-faces that have come into our dominion.”
They were but three, and did not know how many we numbered, but that never occurred to them. With slow and dignified strides they went out of the thicket, we following.
Then for the first time Intschu-Tschuna saw the surveying instruments standing as we had left them, and, stopping suddenly, he turned to me, demanding: “What is this? Are the pale-faces measuring the land?”
His eyes lost their calmness, and he asked sternly: “Do you obey these people, and measure with them?”
He threw a scornful glance upon me, and in a contemptuous tone he said to Kleki-Petrah: “Your teachings sound well, but they do not often agree with what I see. Christians deceive and rob the Indians. Here is a young pale-face with a brave heart, open face, honorable eyes, and when I ask what he does here he tells me he has come to steal our land. The faces of the white men are good and bad, but inside they are all alike.”
To be honest, his words filled me with shame. Could I well be proud of my share in this matter—I, a Catholic, who had been taught so early: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods”? I blushed for my race and for myself before this fine savage; and before I could rally enough even to try to reply, the head engineer, who had been watching us through a hole in the tent, came forth to meet us, and my thoughts were diverted by what then took place.
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THE first question the head engineer asked as we came up, although he was surprised to see the Indians with us, was what had become of the bear.