Now they were almost home and Buffalo Hump was slowing them down again, just because of Red Hand.
The delay was one thing too many for Worm, who did not hide his impatience, forgetting that Buffalo Hump could be impatient too. Before Worm realized the danger he had pushed too hard. Buffalo Hump whirled on him--he did not raise his lance or draw his bow, but the death he could deal with them was there, in his eyes.
'I want you to wait until Red Hand has finished his prayer,' he said. 'He might need to talk to you. He would not come so far to pray unless it was important. Once he has finished and we have all talked to him, then we will go home.' Worm restrained himself with difficulty. He did not like to be corrected. Red Hand was a man of no judgment; probably he was just sitting on a rock pile praying because his wife had refused him, although it was true that Red Hand was shaking as if his life were about to end.
Worm composed himself and waited. Fat Knee caught a mouse and he and the other boys amused themselves with it for a while, catching it under a cup and then releasing it, only to catch it again before it could get to a hole.
Finally Red Hand stopped shaking so much. His eyes had been turned up to the sky--he had been seeing only what was inside his prayer. When he lowered his head and saw several people waiting for him he looked very surprised.
'I came here to pray,' he said. Then he could not seem to think of more ^ws. He got to his feet, moving like an old man, and mounted his gray horse.
'This is a new place you have found to pray,' Buffalo Hump pointed out. 'Many people find good places to pray in the canyon.' He was trying to be patient. After all, a man's prayers were serious. He himself had chosen a difficult place on a high rock when he had prayed for the success of the great raid. Red Hand had every right to pray on a rock pile if he wanted to. Buffalo Hump was merely curious as to why he had chosen this particular rock pile as his praying place.
What Red Hand wanted to do was change the subject. What had driven him to the rock pile to pray was the fact that one of his wives had got her blood on him--they had been coupling when her impure time came. When he pulled away from his wife and saw that he was red with blood he was so upset that he jumped on his horse and left the village. Red Hand was no longer a youth; he had four wives and he coupled with them as frequently as possible, but never before had he coupled with one of his wives when she was impure.
The wife it happened with was known as High Rabbit because she stepped so high in the dance--al her legs were thin like a jackrabbit's. High Rabbit was not an immodest woman; in fact she was the most circumspect of his wives. She insisted on a great deal of privacy before she would let Red Hand couple with her. High Rabbit was also horrified by what had happened. She ran quickly to her mother to find out what her fate would be. Sometimes women were driven out of the tribe or even killed for allowing men to come near them when they were impure.
Red Hand didn't know what High Rabbit's mother might have told her, because he had left the village immediately and had not been back. As soon as he came to a stream he washed himself many times, though he knew the washings would do little good. The impurity would strike him inside, where he couldn't wash it away. His assumption was that he would die soon; he wanted to pray as much as possible before his end came, and the rock pile seemed as good a place as any. In his mind contact with impure blood meant death and he wanted to hurry to a praying place and start praying. Some rattlesnakes had been around the rock pile when he arrived, but they soon went away.
Probably even the rattlesnakes knew of his impurity and hurried to their dens to dissociate themselves from it.
To Red Hand's surprise, he didn't die; now Buffalo Hump, leader of the great raid, had come upon him and seemed to find it amusing that he had chosen to pray on a rock pile. Of course Buffalo Hump didn't know about the dire thing that had occurred in Red Hand's lodge.
Red Hand would have liked a few ^ws with Worm about the matter of impure blood, but Worm had never liked him very much. Probably he would just tell him to go away and die if he knew about the blood.
Under the circumstances Red Hand thought it best to talk about something beside his choice of places to pray. Buffalo Hump was not a great chief for nothing. He might find out that Red Hand had come to the rock pile because he was stained.
'Kicking Wolf is back,' Red Hand said.
'He was very weak when he found us and he sees two deer where there is one.' Buffalo Hump was not concerned with Kicking Wolf's vision problems.
'Where is the Buffalo Horse?' he asked.
'I don't know about that, but the worst thing is that Three Birds did not return,' Red Hand said. 'The Black Vaquero got him.' 'If he got Three Birds, how did Kicking Wolf get away?' Buffalo Hump asked.
Then Red Hand realized that he did know what had happened to the Buffalo Horse--he returned in his mind to an earlier part of the story; he was so upset about his impurity that he could not remember events in a straightforward way. Now he suddenly remembered about the Buffalo Horse --an Apache had told Slipping Weasel about him. The Apache had heard the story from a man who was wandering.
'Wait, I was in my prayer, I forgot this,' Red Hand said. 'They cooked the Buffalo Horse in a great pit, but they took away his head and cooked it somewhere else. It took a whole village to eat him. I think Ahumado ate his head. They also caught Big Horse Scull and hung him in a cage.' 'I was wanting to know about Kicking Wolf,' Buffalo Hump said, without impatience. He could tell that Red Hand's mind was in a disordered state. He was talking rapidly, although there was no need to hurry their talk.
'Ahumado did catch Kicking Wolf,' Red Hand said. 'He tied him to a horse and the horse almost dragged him to death. But Big Horse Scull cut him loose.' 'What did Ahumado do with Three Birds?' Worm asked.
'There are some stories about Three Birds but I don't know if they are true,' Red Hand said. 'An Apache said that Three Birds flew off the Yellow Cliff. He did not want to go in the cage where they put Scull.' 'I don't think Three Birds could fly,' Buffalo Hump said. 'I will ask Kicking Wolf about it myself. He may know more than that Apache.' 'He may, but since the horse pulled him he sees two deer where there is one,' Red Hand told him.
On the ride home Buffalo Hump asked Worm about the things Red Hand had said, but Worm was not very informative. He was annoyed that Kicking Wolf had taken the Buffalo Horse to Mexico, to be eaten by a village.
'We could have cooked it in a pit ourselves,' Worm said. 'We could have eaten it as quickly as that village.' Later, in camp, Buffalo Hump mentioned Worm's complaint to Kicking Wolf. The latter was having his hair greased
