home.'
Kicking Bird translated and the old man picked up his pipe. He —- it with a brand from the fire and puffed intently. Then he laid it his lap and, when his reply to Kicking Bird was finished, looked naturedly in Lawrie Tatum's direction.
'Ten Bears say he like new eyes Lawrie Tatum give him. Wants eyes to see what white men do. He go.'
'Kicking Bird?' the Quaker asked breathlessly.
'Kicking Bird go.'
'Wonderful!” Lawrie Tatum exclaimed in English. The two Comanches gazed, at him quizzically and he quickly added in Comanche, 'Good. . good!'
The excitement in the lodge was palpable for a few seconds. Then Ten Bears spoke his second thoughts.
'Train safe?' Kicking Bird asked.
'Yes, quite safe.'
'No kill Comanche?'
'No,' replied the Quaker, who, for emphasis, reached into his saddlebags and pulled out the black book he worshiped. He placed one hand flat on the book, raised the other and swung his head from side to side.
'No kill Comanche.'
Chapter XXXIX
A council was held the night of the fateful interview with Lawrie Tatum, and it was perhaps the most unlikely ever convened.
As the warriors filed in, the wailing of women and children outside continued unabated, but the men stuffing themselves into Kicking Bird's special lodge would have been no less morose had there been no mourning to dampen the atmosphere. Each took his place, and the pipe revolved around the first circle in a silence so complete that each could hear his neighbor breathing.
Finally Ten Bears laid the pipe in front of him and started up from the floor. Pushing the spectacles higher on his nose, he gazed wistfully over the assembly.
'Hear me, brave-hearted Comanche men. My heart is glad to see you here. It fills with pride at the sight of fine warriors sitting together.
Choking with emotion, Ten Bears paused. In the absolute quiet, he stared at his feet until he regained his composure.
'The little white man agent has asked Ten Bears and Kicking Bird to make a long journey east. The Great Father in Washington wants to meet us and take our hands. I have told him I will go. Kicking Bird has said the same. I have often wondered how white people can live in this world and I want to see it. We will visit the white people for maybe ten sleeps and then we will come back.
'This journey will be my last. When I return I will leave this beautiful earth I have been walking so long and cross the stars to be with all those who came before me. I am looking forward to crossing the stars. I have traveled the circle of life. My life has been good. My heart is good. That is all I have to say for myself.'
There was not a sound as Ten Bears sat back down, with help, and the few seconds of stillness that followed seemed to last forever.
Then Kicking Bird stood up.
'I have seen what you have seen,' he began. “Our brothers lying dead on the earth. I have fought what you have fought. I was not afraid to fight. I was nor afraid to die. I took a white man's scalp. It hangs in my lodge. . but Kicking Bird is finished trying to fight the white man's guns. It is useless. More fighting will only make more dying. . more weeping.'
He paused long enough to let an upwelling of sobs from outside wash eerily through the lodge.
'The little white man says the buffalo are being killed so the white people can have their tongues. Maybe they are making medicine with the tongues of our brothers. Maybe they are using them for ceremonies. I do not know. Soon there will be nothing for my wives and children to put in their bellies. I want my wives and my children to live more than I want to fight.
'Before I go to Washington I will go where the white man asks and take his pen in my hand and touch it to the paper that promises to make no more war. I will follow the 'holy road.' This I will do in the morning.
'I ask no one to go with me. Each man here is a warrior. Each man will know his heart. I have no rancor toward any man who disagrees with what I do. My heart is good.'
Wind In His Hair was starting up as Kicking Bird settled back down but, after reaching his feet, he seemed in no hurry to speak. He stood, imperious, for a few moments, his good eye unblinking. Then he laid a fist gently against his chest.
'There is no bitterness in Wind In His Hair's heart,” he began. “Our minds may choose different paths, but some part of every heart will always be as one. All my life I have been a warrior, and I will not change. I will not die as anything else.
'The whites have taken much from me. They have taken my brothers, my wives, my children. Now they want to take me off the earth upon which I walk. Maybe they will kill me now, and if they do, so be it. I will not take their hands. I will keep my ponies' tails tied up for war.'
Wind In His Hair had made his quiet, measured statement in silence, and it prevailed as he resumed his seat.
The council did not stir for a minute or two and then, as spontaneously and mysteriously as a school of fish shifts direction, men began to rise and file out. No one talked because there was nothing left to say. Each warrior walked back to his lodge alone.
Chapter XL
The young men were especially troubled. They had planned and dreamed and striven all their lives for opportunities to prove themselves, but the perplexing rush of events that culminated in the most recent council denied them the chance to live fully. If there were no buffalo, how could anyone hunt? Or feed a family? Or have a family? If there were no horses to steal, how could a man grow rich? How could a man win honors if there was no enemy to fight? How could any young warrior just starting out aspire to membership in the Hard Shields? How could Hard Shields exist? What could a man do on a “reservation” except watch the sun go up and down? The questions haunted every young man, and that agony was felt by Smiles A Lot.
When he stepped into his lodge and Hunting For Something asked him what had happened, he said nothing. His mind was being pressured from all sides with pros and cons. To be a Comanche was suddenly a strangely confusing thing.
He stood with his back to her working loose the braid that attached the black cascade of horsehair to his head. when he had returned the decoration to its place of safety in an occasional bag, he walked to the fire and sat down, but still he did not speak.
Sensing that he should not be pressed, Hunting For Something waited patiently for him to come to the fire. Normally, he sat across from her but tonight he sat beside her, as if offering himself, and she knew he was ready to talk.
'Tell me,' she said softly.
Smiles A Lot told of the ultimatum Lawrie Tatum had brought to the village and related what Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair had said in council.
