Smiles A Lot began to pace.
'That white man I killed. . I should have taken his rings. I think he had some.'
'A white man's ring,' she muttered critically. 'Why would you want something so awful in your hair when you have that black racer standing outside?'
'I can't put a horse in my scalplock,' Smiles A Lot laughed.
'A piece of him,' she countered. 'A piece of him.'
Smiles A Lot cut a hank of hair from the black racer's tail, and when Hunting For Something was done braiding it into his scalplock, the horsehair flowed along one temple, over his shoulder, spread down his back, and spilled over his buttocks like a living talisman. As he walked back and forth, in the way a haberdasher's client might take a few steps to check the fit of a new suit, the voice of Shaking Hand called from outside.
Hunting For Something moved with him as he started for the lodge flap.
'You can speak if you want,' she reminded him.
'Why should I speak?'
'People want you to.'
Smiles A Lot couldn't fully grasp that he had become a man of distinction. Everything had happened so quickly. He stared at her vacantly, but Hunting For Something only smiled.
'I won't go to sleep,' she said matter-of-factly, and he stepped outside, the long swath of black horsehair moving behind him.
Ten Bears' tent was already packed with warriors when he came inside. Smiles A Lot still felt he was dreaming as a place, only a few men removed from Wind In His Hair's side, was made for him among the Hard Shields.
He had never sat in the front rank of a council, and as he let his arms relax on crossed legs, a flash of clarity lit inside him. Taking in the scene around him, Smiles A Lot realized suddenly that he knew what was about to happen.
Though the council had not started, the lodge was abnormally quiet. Flanked on either side by Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair, the figure of Ten Bears provided a clear line of demarcation. The lodge was physically split by the followers of each warrior, yet each of them shared a uniformly apprehensive look on his face. There were always disagreements in council, and at times heated words were exchanged, but Smiles A Lot understood, even before anyone had spoken, that the division that would rend this council was something completely unprecedented.
Extraordinary as the tension was, it was surmounted in spectacular style by the appearance of Ten Bears. Every man made some whispered comment about the bizarre apparatus on his face, and the fact that it was a thing from the white world passed from warrior to warrior until it was known to all.
Smiles A Lot's eyes fell toward his lap, then onto his hands, fingers, and wrists. He noticed the elegant curve of his fingers for the first time, and the supple, miraculous movement of his wrist. A prominent artery ran over his thumb, and where it stood at its highest he could see the steady pulse of his blood.
All at once he felt whole, the connection of everything that made him one person suddenly evident. The wavering flames in Ten Bears, fire were interchangeable with himself. They burned in concert for life — just as his own mind, body, and heart burned. And like himself, they were subject to the vagaries of wind and water, sun and air, wholly dependent on the Mystery for existence.
In the moments before the council convened, Smiles A Lot's surprising transformation reached its climax, and by the time the pipe had traveled twice around the first circle, the boy who knew horses had shed an old, hindering skin. His perception had shifted from himself to the world around him. He was no longer self-conscious, and as Ten Bears made ready to speak, Smiles A Lot tuned his senses to receive the headman's every word.
Ten Bears understood that the tension in his lodge was coming from an invisible fissure beneath his feet, a rift that separated Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair and their followers from one another. To feel it troubled him, but as he looked out over the warriors gathered around him, he felt his heart and mouth come together and felt secure that his words, even if they fell short of unifying the opposing factions, would soar high above earthly cares, for he was sure they had been touched by the Mystery.
In silence the old man turned in a circle, passing his eyes over the crowd. When he had completed the first rotation he briefly lifted his face to heaven before beginning his address.
'We are all together,' he began. 'It is good for Comanches to be together. Our power is always greater when that happens.”
As he spoke Ten Bears began to move, constantly shifting his attention from place to place, making contact with everyone sitting around him.
'You can see my face,' he continued, 'and you can see this object I have lain over my nose. You may find it strange but do not fear it. It is a magical apparatus, for with it I can see you just as you see me.”
To demonstrate the proof of what he was saying Ten Bears picked out warriors all over the lodge, identifying them by name and alluding to unique items that adorned them.
'But I do not need this to see that the men in my lodge have two minds. One mind is for peace and one is for war. These two minds trouble me because peace and war cannot sit together comfortably, and my heart goes to the ground when I see Comanches divided.
'We know about the wagon raid and the great deeds that were done there,' he said, directing the words toward Wind In His Hair. 'But Kicking Bird has been walking a different path and he has yet to tell us about it. We should hear what he has to say.'
Kicking Bird rose as Ten Bears descended. He, too, scanned the entire gathering, but as he began to speak he kept his face turned toward the Hard Shields and their sympathizers. Without embellishment or prejudice he described the meeting with the whites, taking care to personify the participants by giving their names and detailing their appearances.
But as he began to outline the substance of Hatton's offer the Hard Shield contingent grew visibly restless and a sneer began to grow on one of Wind In His Hair's lips. When Kicking Bird related the proposal for the Comanche and Kiowa to live in a single, restricted area, Wind In His Hair was finally compelled to interrupt.
'Put a Comanche in a pen and the Comanche will die.'
As if ignoring a heckler, Kicking Bird held up his hands for quiet and pushed on.
'I think Bad Hand and his soldiers would not mind if we defy him. I think he would be happy to make war on us. But he will not come to steal our horses or robes or weapons. They want only to drench the prairie with Comanche blood. White people give their soldiers money to do this.'
Again Wind In His Hair interrupted.
'If Bad Hand comes out here it might be his blood that goes into the earth. That might happen to any white man who dares to come into our country. I am ready to kill as many as I have to.'
A flutter of approving grunts and murmurs flew up around Wind In His Hair, and Kicking Bird waited for them to die down before he continued.
'I do not think all the whites are bad. . not all of them should be killed.'
Several shouts of derision sailed across the fire, but for the moment they succeeded only in hardening Kicking Bird's reserve. He pointed sharply at Ten Bears and his voice rose.
'The white who knows how to make eyes new. . the one called Lawrie Tatum. . his heart is good. He wants only to serve us. . and the Kiowa, too. He wants to help us and take care of us.'
'Take care of us!' Wind In His Hair shouted, jumping to his feet.
'Put a Comanche in a pen and the Comanche will die! What do you say to that, brother?'
A hush followed Wind In His Hair's outburst and, as all eyes fell on him, Kicking Bird seemed suddenly placid and majestic in the lonely silence that surrounded him.
'I agree,' he said quietly.
Wind In His Hair grunted haughtily.
'How would you die, my brother?' Kicking Bird asked.
'Like any man — as a warrior.'
'What of your wife, your children? How should they die? Fatherless? Starving? Helpless?'
'In a pen?' Wind In His Hair retorted.
Kicking Bird appealed now to everyone.
'I do not want my children to die. I want them to grow.'
