'From then on, white soldiers were with the looking-glass people and we had a hard time driving them off. When the grass started out of the earth this year some Kaws told us that the road for the fire wagon was being built. They said there were many white men doing this and that the road was aimed at our hunting grounds.
'Council fires burned for many sleeps until it was decided that we should make war against this road. A great party of a hundred warriors set out to the east when the ponies were fat. We wanted to stop the road. Our hearts were strong. We were willing to fight the fire wagon.
'After five sleeps we found the fire-wagon road. There were many white men making it. .'
'How does this road look? ' Ten Bears interrupted.
'Two ropes laid side by side. Metal ropes. The white men we saw were pounding these ropes into the earth. We decided to drive these whites off and circled behind them so we could come out of the sun when we attacked them in the morning. We did this and they scattered over the prairie. We took two scalps but some had the far- shooting guns and we fell back.
'We were going to attack once more when two scouts galloped in from the east. These scouts had seen something coming toward us on the metal rope road. It was not a fire wagon but some kind of wagon bed without sides. It had wheels and a stick with handles which two white men were pumping up and down like drinking birds. A third white man was riding on this thing.
'We saw it come over a little hill and rush down to where we were sitting our horses. The two pumping white men rolled onto the ground and ran off. Our horses were so frightened that they began to jump into the air. It was hard to hold them.
'The third man did not run away. He came down the hill, standing straight up on the funny wagon. He wore a black robe. Around his neck were two pieces of crossed silver. He pulled the silver over his head and waved it as he drew closer. He pulled a black thing from his robe, the thing white men call a 'book.' He held these things over his head, screaming words we did not know. The man was not pumping and the little wagon lost power. It stopped in front of us and the man stepped off.
'Many stout warriors did not want to look at the man. He had no meat. His skin was the color of wax. His nose was as thin as a needle and his eyes popped like a frog's. He waved his arms and yelled and paced back and forth. He pointed the cross at people. People were getting scared.
'Then he fell down in the grass. He began to roll on the earth. He talked in many strange voices and his eyes turned up into his head showing only the whites. Saliva poured from his mouth. All could see that some spirit was inside him and that he was deranged. The strongest warrior has no power against such things. We rode away, hardly stopping until we were home.'
Kicking Bird, who had followed Fast's strange story with rapt attention, got quickly to his feet as the rain outside began to fall faster.
'Did anyone find out who this being was?'
'We have counseled with all who know anything of whites,' Fast replied. “It might be a white man priest. It might be that the road for the fire wagon is some kind of holy road. People are calling it the white man's holy road.'
'And the fire wagon, the thing the white man calls a 'train'. Have you seen this thing?'
'Two times,' Fast replied. 'It makes a horrible noise and is covered in armor. Nothing can penetrate. We have tried to pull the road up from the earth but it takes many men to get one piece out. And the whites always put it right back. We are still trying to find a way to fight the fire wagon. It is a hard thing to fight.'
Fast let his arms drop to his sides and stood, surveying the crowd of Comanches across the fire. Then he sat down. A hush filled Kicking Bird's lodge and for a few moments only the rain, beating steadily on the conical hide that surrounded them, could be heard.
Ten Bears' chin had dropped toward his chest but now he raised it and started shakily to his feet, rising with the aid of the strong arms around him.
'We have heard your talk,” he signed. 'We pity the Cheyenne for their troubles. What will you do?'
Wolf Robe rose to answer.
'What can be done to fight an enemy that is everywhere,' he replied, 'an enemy with weapons no one understands, an enemy that becomes larger every day no matter how many we might kill? No one can answer these questions but we are all warriors and a warrior knows but one thing and that is to defend his people and his country. It may be that the next time the snow flies our bones will be scattered over the earth but none of us are afraid to die.'
Ten Bears nodded as Wolf Robe sat. 'It is the same with the Comanche. Who knows what fate the Mystery has planned for us. But if Cheyenne runners reach this village and ask us to come and help, we will do it anytime. We have fought side by side in the past and we will help the Cheyenne if they want us to. Comanche fear no enemy.'
Ten Bears blinked as he looked out at his guests, wondering briefly if it was possible to fall asleep on his feet. 'Our hearts are glad to have old friends in camp. It makes everyone happy. The rain is coming down now and I long to be under the good robe in my lodge. Good night.'
Everyone who had been sitting got to their feet. Those standing stirred perceptibly for the first time since the meeting had been convened. Outside, Smiles A Lot pulled back from the lodge wall and receded into the darkness.
But he was still watching as the conferees ducked out of the lodge and moved off through the driving rain with as little care as if they were strolling in the sun. Smiles A Lot, too, was unfazed by the rain that had soaked him through and was now running down his face.
He had read the words of the warriors disappearing into the night as if for the first time. He had seen them as if for the first time. The dreamer he had been all his life was no more, shed as if by magic. It had joined the water pooling around his feet. Confusion had suddenly lifted and he knew he would no longer worry about what he might do.
His dilemma over Hunting For Something was gone, too. His feelings for her were the same, but he no longer felt sick.
Something strong had invaded him, a force with the power to erase the past and set the future. There was only one thing he wanted now. He wanted to be a part of the talk he had just witnessed. When there was a call to arms, he wanted to catch up his strongest pony and ride to battle. He wanted to sire children and provide for them, and from that night on, Smiles A Lot possessed a single, all-consuming ambition.
He wanted to die a warrior.
Chapter IX
There was still dew on the grass when the Cheyenne headed west like a flotilla of small ships sailing slowly away on a flat, endless ocean. Impromptu councils sprung up as soon as they were gone. They had enjoyed the company of their visitors, but the people of Ten Bears' camp were itching for the moment when they could get down to the business of speculating on developments in the country of the Cheyenne.
Though it was far to the north, it wasn't as if no one had ever been there. A few people knew that country well and most had at least touched it in their far-ranging travels. Now that soldiers and buffalo-hunters and settlers had invaded it, everyone wondered if the Comanche might not be next. The Kiowa nation was just to the north, a buffer between the Cheyenne and Comanche, but that was little consolation in light of the monstrous power of what the Cheyenne had called the holy road.
The road and what it carried and what it might mean for all of them was too incomprehensible for consensus to emerge in the endless round of meetings that day. A significant number of warriors refused to believe that the whites would ever consider invading their country, and at many fires there was talk about how quickly the whites would be destroyed if they were so foolish as to try to encroach on Comanche lands. Soldiers especially. Soldiers couldn't ride. They couldn't shoot well, and their big American horses gave out quickly. If soldiers came, they would probably die of thirst before Comanche warriors had a chance to kill them.
