he had not led a peaceful life, but to die at the hands of his own son was not a thing Buffalo Hump would have expected to happen.
Kicking Wolf didn't immediately believe it, though. Dancing Rabbit wandered from camp to camp, collecting stories; then, often, he got them all mixed together before he could get back to his own camp and tell everyone the news.
'Blue Duck probably just said that--he was always a braggart,' Kicking Wolf said.
'No, it's true--the Antelopes saw his body with the lance sticking through it,' Dancing Rabbit insisted. 'The lance went into his hump and then it went through his body into the ground.' Several of the young men of the tribe had gathered, by this time, to hear Dancing Rabbit tell his tale about the death of the great chief Buffalo Hump, the only chief to lead a raid all the way to the Great Water. Only a few days before, the same young warriors had scorned Buffalo Hump.
To them, while he lived he was just a surly old man with an ugly hump and a violent temper, an old man who was weak, who could not hunt, who had to live by snaring small game. The presence of the young men irritated Kicking Wolf. They had never seen Buffalo Hump in his days as a raider, and had been rude to him many times once he was old and couldn't strike at them; but, now that he was dead, they could not get enough of hearing stories about him. They did not deserve to know about Buffalo Hump, in his view--and, anyway, he himself did not believe half of what Dancing Rabbit was saying.
'How do you know where the lance went in?' he asked, in a tone that was not friendly. 'Were you there?' 'No, but the Antelopes saw the body,' Dancing Rabbit insisted. 'The Texans saw it too. The Texans tried to pull the lance out but they couldn't remove it. Then Blue Duck shot two of their horses--t is why they are walking across the llano. They have little water. We can go and steal their horses if you want to.' Kicking Wolf sat in silence for a long time after hearing this speech. Dancing Rabbit was claiming knowledge he didn't have; also, there were several issues that needed to be studied and assessed before he could make up his mind what to do.
Dancing Rabbit was annoyed that old Kicking Wolf kept silent, even though he had brought him exciting news. The Texans were not far, only thirty miles. They had walked a long way and were tired and low on water. They could easily be killed; or, if Kicking Wolf was not interested in killing them, they could at least steal the Texans' horse and mule. That would be a simple thing, for a master horse thief such as Kicking Wolf.
In fact, Dancing Rabbit was very anxious to go with Kicking Wolf and watch how he went about stealing horses. Dancing Rabbit, at the moment, possessed only two horses, and neither of them was a very good horse. The fact that he was poor and had no horses to offer was one thing that was making it difficult for him to find a wife. He wanted a wife badly, but knew that he would have to get some horses first, if he expected to purchase a wife who had much appeal. That is why he spent so much time with Kicking Wolf, the great horse thief. Dancing Rabbit hoped to get Kicking Wolf interested in stealing horses again; perhaps if they could manage to steal a good many horses Kicking Wolf would allow him to keep a few-- enough, at least, to allow him to trade for an acceptable wife. But now Kicking Wolf was sitting by some cattle bones in silence; he showed little interest in the story Dancing Rabbit had ridden all night to tell him.
Kicking Wolf was thinking that most of what Dancing Rabbit told him was probably a lie. For one thing, he claimed that his information came from the Antelope--but the Antelope were an aloof people, so contemptuous of other Indians, even other Comanches, that they routinely made up big lies in order to mislead them.
'If the Antelopes saw these Texans, why didn't they kill them?' Kicking Wolf asked. 'You said there were only four Texans. The Antelopes are hard fighters. They could easily kill four Texans.' One of the things Dancing Rabbit liked least about Kicking Wolf was that he was always skeptical.
He was never willing just to accept the information that was given him. Now Kicking Wolf was embarrassing him in front of several young warriors by doubting the information he had brought. Now the young warriors, including some of his best friends, were beginning to look skeptical too. Dancing Rabbit was vexed that an old man would put him in such a position.
'They didn't kill the Texans because they don't have very many bullets,' he said--in fact he had no idea himself why the Antelope Comanche were letting the Texans get away.
'Gun In The Water was one of the Texans,' he added. It was information he had just remembered, and it did cause Kicking Wolf to raise his head and look a little more interested.
'If Gun In The Water was there, Silver Hair McCrae is there too,' Kicking Wolf said.
At mention of the two rangers Kicking Wolf lapsed into memory, but it was not the two rangers he was remembering--r, he was thinking of the young Mexican woman who had been Blue Duck's mother. His memory would not bring back her name, but it did bring back her beauty. He had tried hard to get Buffalo Hump to let him have the girl.
He had offered many horses, and fine horses too, but Buffalo Hump had ignored him, insulted him, kept the girl, and then let her run away and freeze in a blizzard, not long after she bore Blue Duck. If Buffalo Hump had only accepted his offer--it had been a handsome offer, too--the woman might be alive and he might not have to suffer the anger of his fat old wife, Broken Foot, every day and every night.
He wouldn't let me have that pretty Mexican girl and now the son she bore him has killed him, Kicking Wolf thought, but he said nothing of what he was remembering to Dancing Rabbit and the other young warriors. Already, several of the young men had concluded that Dancing Rabbit was only telling more lies--they had begun to wander off, making jokes about coupling with women. They were young men, they did not want to waste all day hearing an old man tell stories of the past.
'What is wrong with you?' Dancing Rabbit asked, unable to contain his annoyance with Kicking Wolf any longer. 'Are you too old to steal horses from the Texans now?' 'You are just a boy--g away and tell your lies to the women,' Kicking Wolf said. 'Right now I have to think about some things.' He wanted Dancing Rabbit to calm down and stop pestering him, but, once he had given the matter some thought, he decided to go see if it really was Gun In The Water and McCrae who were crossing the llano. Many Texans came to the plains now, but those two hadn't, not in some years.
For all Kicking Wolf knew, they might suppose he was dead. They might think they were rid of the great horse thief Kicking Wolf. It would amuse him to show them that he was still alive, and that he had lost none of his skill where horse thievery was concerned. Also, it might be that if he got far enough away from Broken Foot, the cramps in his leg might subside.
After midday Kicking Wolf began to stir himself. He took several rawhide thongs he used when he was leading horses away. He had acquired a fine rifle in a trade the year before, an excellent Winchester, but, after some thought, he decided to leave the rifle. He only took his bow and a good supply of arrows.
Dancing Rabbit, who had been watching Kicking Wolf closely, saw him making preparations to leave camp and hurried over, eager for the trip to begin.
