Winnetou, the Apache Knight, Karl Friedrich May [easy books to read txt] 📗

“Yes.”

“And are paid for it?”

“Yes.”

He threw a scornful glance upon me, and in a contemptuous tone he said to Kleki-Petrah: “Your teachings sound well, but they do not often agree with what I see. Christians deceive and rob the Indians. Here is a young paleface with a brave heart, open face, honorable eyes, and when I ask what he does here he tells me he has come to steal our land. The faces of the white men are good and bad, but inside they are all alike.”

To be honest, his words filled me with shame. Could I well be proud of my share in this matter - I, a Catholic, who had been taught so early: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods “? I blushed for my race and for myself before this fine savage; and before I could rally enough even to try to reply, the head engineer, who had been watching us through a hole in the tent, came forth to meet us, and my thoughts were diverted by what then took place.

CHAPTER V. THE SPEECH OF THE APACHE CHIEF.

THE first question the head engineer asked as we came up, although he was surprised to see the Indians with us, was what had become of the bear.

Rattler instantly replied: “We’ve shot him, and we’ll have bear-paws for dinner, and bear-steak to-night for supper.”

Our three guests looked at me as if to see whether I would let this pass, and I said: “I claim to have stabbed the bear. Here are three witnesses who have corroborated my statement; but we’ll wait till Hawkins, Stone, and Parker come, and they will give their opinion, by which we will be guided. Till then the bear must lie untouched.”

“Not much will I leave it to the scouts,” growled Rattler. “I’ll go with my men and cut up the bear, and whoever tries to hinder us will be driven off with a dozen shots in his body.”

“Hold on, Mr. Rattler,” said I. “I’m not as much afraid of your shots as you were of the bear. You won’t drive me up a tree with your threats. I recommend you to bury your dead comrade; I would not leave him lying thus.”

“Is some one dead?” asked Bancroft, startled.

“Yes, Rollins,” Rattler replied. “The poor fellow had jumped for a tree, like the rest of us, and would have been all right, but this greenhorn came up, excited the bear, and it tore Rollins horribly.”

I stood speechless with amazement that he should dare go so far. It was impossible to endure such lying, and in my very presence. I turned on Rattler and demanded: “Do you mean to say Rollins was escaping, and I prevented it?”

“Yes,” he nodded, drawing his revolver.

“And I say the bear had seized him before I came.”

“That’s a lie,” said Rattler.

“Very well; here’s a truth for you,” and with these words I knocked his revolver from his hand with my left, and with the right gave him such a blow on the ear that he staggered six or eight feet away, and fell flat on the ground.

He sprang up, drew his knife, and came at me raging like a wild beast. I parried the knife-thrust with my left hand, and with my right laid him senseless at my feet.

“Ugh! ugh!” grunted Intschu-Tschuna, surprised into admiration, which his race rarely betray.

“That was Shatterhand again,” said Wheeler, the surveyor.

I kept my eye on Rattler’s comrades; they were angry, but no one dared attack me, and though they muttered among themselves they did no more.

“You must send Rattler away, Mr. Bancroft,” I said. “I have done nothing to him, yet he constantly seeks a quarrel with me. I am afraid he’ll make serious trouble in the camp. Send him away, or, if you prefer, I’ll go myself.”

“Oh, things aren’t as bad as that,” said Bancroft easily.

“Yes, they are, just as bad as that. Here are his knife and revolver; don’t let him have them, for I warn you they’d not be in good hands.”

Just as I spoke these words our three scouts joined us, and having heard the story of Rattler’s lying claim, and my counter-statement, they set off at once to examine the bear’s carcass to settle the dispute. They returned in a short time, and as soon as he was within hailing distance Sam called out: “What idiocy it was to shoot a grizzly and then run! If a man doesn’t intend making a fight, then what on earth does he shoot for? Why doesn’t he leave the bear in peace? You can’t treat grizzlies like poodle-dogs. Poor Rollins paid dear for it, though. Now, who killed that bear, did you say?”

“I did,” cried Rattler, who had come to. “I killed him with my gun.”

“Well, that agrees; that’s all right. The bear was shot.”

“Do you hear that, men? Sam Hawkins has decided for me,” cried Rattler triumphantly.

“Yes, for you,” said Sam. “You shot him, and took off the tip of his ear, and such a loss naturally ended the grizzly, ha! ha! ha! If you shot again it went wide of the mark, for there’s no other gun-shot on him. But there are four true knife-thrusts, two above the heart and two in it; who gave him those?”

“I did,” I said.

“You alone?”

“No one else.”

“Then the bear belongs to you. That is, the pelt is yours; the flesh belongs to all, but you have the right to divide it. This is the custom of the West. Have you anything to say, Mr. Rattler?”

Rattler growled something that condemned us to a much warmer climate, and turned sullenly to the wagon where the liquor was stored. I saw him pour down glass after glass, and knew he would drink till he could drink no more.

The Indians had listened to our discussion, and watched us in silent interest; but now, our affairs being settled, the chief, Intschu-Tschuna, turned to the head engineer, saying: “My ear has told me that among these palefaces you are chief; is this so?”

“Yes,” Bancroft replied.

“Then I have something to say to you.”

“What is it?”

“You shall hear. But you are standing, and men should sit in conference.”

“Will you be our guest?” asked Bancroft.

“No, for it is impossible. How can I be your guest when you are on my lands, in my forests, my valleys, my prairies? Let the white men be seated.”

“Tell me what you wish of me,” said Bancroft.

“It is not a wish, but a command,” answered Intschu-Tschuna proudly.

“We will take no command,” responded the head engineer with equal pride.

A look of anger passed over the chief’s face, but he controlled himself, and said mildly: “My white brother will answer me one question truthfully. Have you a house?”

“Yes.”

“With a garden?”

“Yes.”

“If a neighbor would cut a path through that garden would my brother submit to it?”

“No.”

“The lands beyond the Rocky Mountains and east of the Mississippi belong to the palefaces. What would they say if the Indians came to build a railroad there?”

“They would drive them away.”

“My white brother has answered truly. But the palefaces come.here on these lands of ours, and drive away our mustangs and kill our buffaloes; they seek among us for gold and precious stones, and now they will build a long, long road on which their fire-horses can run. Then more palefaces will follow this road, and settle among us, and take the little we have left us. What are we to say to this?”

Bancroft was silent.

“Have we fewer rights than they? You call yourselves Christians, and speak of love, yet you say: We can rob and cheat you, but you must be honest with us. Is that love? You say your God is the Good Father of all men, red and white. Is He only our stepfather, and are you His own sons? Did not all the land belong to the red man? It has been taken from us, and what have we instead? Misery, misery, misery. You drive us ever farther and farther back, and press us closer and closer together, and in a little time we shall be suffocated. Why do you do this? Is it because you have not room enough? No, for there is room in your lands still for many, many millions. Each of your tribes can have a whole State, but the red man, the true owner, may not have a place to lay his head. Kleki-Petrah, who sits here before me, has taught me your Holy Book. There it says that the first man had two sons, and one killed the other, and his blood cried to Heaven. How is it with the two brothers, the red and the white? Are you not Cain, and are we not Abel, whose blood cries to Heaven? And when you try to destroy us you vanish us to make no defence. But we will defend ourselves, we will defend ourselves. We have been driven from place to place, ever farther away; now we collide here, where we believed ourselves at rest, but you come to build your railroad. Have we not the same rights you have over your house and garden ? If we followed our own laws we should kill you; but we only wish your laws to be fulfilled towards us: are they? No! Your laws have two faces, and you turn them to us as it suits your advantage. Have you asked our permission to build this road?”

“No,” said Bancroft. “It was not necessary.”

“Have you bought the land, or have we sold it?”

“Not to me.”

“Nor to any other. Were you an honest man sent here to build a way for the fire-horse, you would first have asked the man who sent you whether he had a right to do this thing, and made him prove it. But this you have not done. I forbid you to measure further.”

These last words were spoken in a tone of most bitter earnest.

I had read much of the red man, but never had found in any book such a speech from an Indian, and I wondered if he owed his fluent English and forcible logic to Kleki-Petrah.

The head engineer found himself in an awkward predicament. If he was honest and sincere he could not gainsay what Intschu-Tschuna had spoken; but there were considerations more weighty with Bancroft than honesty, so the chief had to wait his answer, looking him straight in the eyes.

Seeing that Bancroft was shifting about in his mind for a way out of his difficulty, Intschu-Tschuna rose, saying decidedly: “There is no need of further speech. I have spoken. My will is that you leave here to-day, and go back whence you came. Decide whether you will obey or not. I will now depart with my son Winnetou, and will return at the end of that time which the palefaces call an hour, when you will give me your answer. If you go, we are brothers; if you stay, it shall be deadly enmity between you and me. I am Intschu-Tschuna, the chief of all the Apaches. I have spoken.”

Winnetou followed him as he went out from among us, and they were soon lost to sight down the valley.

Kleki-Petrah remained seated, and Flancroft turned to him and asked his advice. He replied: “Do as you will, sir. I am of the chief’s opinion. The red race has been cruelly outraged and robbed. But as a white man I know that the Indian must disappear. If you are an honest man and go to-day, tomorrow another will come to carry on your work. I warn you, however, that the chief is in earnest.”

He, too,