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CHAPTER XXIV. A PALAVER.
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 Buffalo1 Bill opened the palaver2.
 
“I have not come to smoke the peace pipe, but to talk,” he said. “If the talk of the Ute is good then we may smoke the peace pipe. If not, the soldiers and the scouts3 are ready for battle. They are many, and there will be more behind to come if they are not enough.”
 
“What has the paleface chief to say to Bear Killer4, the chief of the Wasatch Utes?”
 
“The Wasatch? If you belong away over there in Utah what are you doing on this side of the great mountain?”
 
“That is the business of Bear Killer—not of the paleface. Bear Killer is like the wind; he goes wherever his spirit wills, and asks leave from no man. What is the talk of the paleface?”
 
“This chief will speak,” said Buffalo Bill, waving his hand toward Captain Meinhold, who came riding up with Wild Bill, thus making the conferring parties equal in numbers.
 
“Where are the two white captives—the girls who were in your possession?” asked the captain sternly.
 
The chief glanced off quickly toward the base of the cliff, where Mainwaring had declared he had seen the girls, and a look of pleasure lighted up his face, for he had supposed the whites had recaptured them already while the fight was going on.
 
“Why does the paleface chief ask?” he said, now ready to prevaricate5 or do anything else in order to gain time, for he believed that the four braves he had[170] left in charge of the girls had been crafty6 enough to retreat with them.
 
“Because he has a right,” was the reply. “The father of these girls mourns for them at the fort of the white soldiers. And they must go back to him, safe and well, or not a red man here shall live to say he has seen them! I speak straight and plain. Where are they? I want them, and mean to have them.”
 
“Bear Killer is a great warrior7. He is chief of the Wasatch. Many braves follow him——”
 
“Bear Killer, if that’s your name, will be a head less in height very soon if he does not give me a straight answer!” cried the captain angrily. “Where are the girls? Speak—or I pull up that flag and my troops will ride you down!”
 
“Bear Killer, before the battle, sent them away out of danger,” said the chief, again glancing toward the spot where they had been left.
 
“Alone?” asked Buffalo Bill, who had detected the look.
 
“No; with four braves to guard them from harm.”
 
“Wild Bill, ride to that cliff over there. Call half a dozen men to go with you as you pass,” said Buffalo Bill nervously8. “Mainwaring said that he saw women there, and I didn’t believe him. He went with only Norfolk Ben in his company, and neither of them knows much about Indians. Go quickly, old fellow, for I feel uneasy.”
 
“You left the girls with four braves?” said the captain to the Ute chief. “Can you not call them in now?”
 
“If I do what will the paleface chief give for the girls whom Bear Killer took from the Shawnees? They are mine by a red man’s right. I took them from the red men—not from the palefaces.”
 
 
“I will give you cold steel and lead, and plenty of both, if you don’t give them up!” was the hot retort. “I shan’t waste any more time in talk. Talking is not my trade. I had rather fight.”
 
“The paleface has seen that the Utes can fight,” said Bear Killer proudly.
 
Then he glanced uneasily toward the hill whither Wild Bill and half a dozen scouts were galloping9, as Buffalo Bill had directed.
 
“You will soon see—and feel—what my soldiers can do if these girls are not produced and given up!” said the captain. “I am in no mood for trifling11. I have not ridden so far for nothing.”
 
Bear Killer saw with alarm that the cavalry12, evidently impatient, were remounting their horses.
 
“We will talk,” he said. “We do not want to fight you palefaces. You have good guns that shoot a great many times, and we do not want to lose many braves for the sake of two women. You may take them.”
 
“Then send one of your braves back with orders to your people to stay where they are, and go up with us to get the girls. My people shall not move unless yours do.”
 
Bear Killer had a struggle with his pride before he could agree to this, but he knew very well what well-armed and mounted white troops could do, so he sent a warrior back, and leaving the truce13 flags flying between the parties, he rode on toward the cliff with the captain and Buffalo Bill.
 
Wild Bill and his men were there searching rapidly from rock to rock for signs which might lead to the discovery of the girls.
 
Four dead Indians, unscalped, lay upon the ground, pierced by rifle balls.
 
They were seen when Captain Meinhold, Buffalo Bill, and the Ute chief rode up.
 
“Who has killed these braves?” demanded Bear Killer angrily. “These were the guards I left with the girls.”
 
“Mainwaring and Norfolk Ben must have done it,” said Buffalo Bill, turning to the captain. “Were they not at our lines when you passed?”
 
He asked this last question of Wild Bill.
 
“No. The last seen of them was on that cliff, when they got your permission to ride over this way and search.”
 
“These men are cold,” said the captain. “They must have been dead a good while. They were killed before you came near the ground, Wild Bill.”
 
Bear Killer, whose looks showed his passionate14 indignation, burst out:
 
“The palefaces speak with double tongues! My braves have been killed with big bullets, such as the palefaces use, for lead does not cost them so much as it does the red man. They ask me for the girls after they have killed their guards and taken them.”
 
“It is not so,” replied the captain. “Your braves were not killed by our men, neither have any of us seen the girls.”
 
“It looks very dark. I cannot see my way clear,” said Bear Killer. “My braves are killed—and killed by white men, who do not take scalps. The women are gone. Who did it?”
 
Buffalo Bill, who had joined Wild Bill in the search, cried out:
 
“There have been men here who don’t belong to our crowd—white men, too! They wore moccasins, and all of my men wear boots—so do the soldiers of the captain. Those men came down the hill in the water and hid behind the rocks and shot the braves in the back. Their tracks tell the story.”
 
“Where, then, is Mr. Mainwaring and that man Norfolk Ben you spoke15 of?” asked the captain.
 
“They must be on the trail of the men who carried off the girls, for beyond here I see no track of the girls,” said Wild Bill.
 
“Go to the top of the hill, some of you, quick!” cried Buffalo Bill. “That is where Mainwaring said he had seen them. If only I had believed him then he should not have gone alone.”
 
Wild Bill and some of the other scouts, by different routes, hurried to reach the indicated spot. Those who followed the bed of the little stream were there first. Wild Bill was not among them, but he was not far behind the rest.
 
His report was quickly made. In one spot, where dry sand had blown into a gully, there were the tracks of the girls, of men in moccasins, and over these the small, slender boot marks made by Mainwaring and the broader track of Ben’s brogans.
 
Just beyond this strip of sand there was a sudden descent—a kind of channel between two cliffs—and then the tracks were lost, for it was hard, solid rock in every direction for a considerable distance.
 
“The girls have been taken by these white ruffians who killed their guards,” said Buffalo Bill, who went up himself and examined the tracks.
 
“They must be followed,” said Captain Meinhold. “But it is singular that Mr. Mainwaring and the man who went with him have not returned. Surely he would not be so rash as to follow on the trail alone.”
 
The captain had come up the ascent16 with Bear Killer.
 
“There is no trail here to find,” remarked Wild Bill. “If he has followed them he must either have seen them or else gone off on a blind chase.”
 
 
“We’ve got to find out. I wouldn’t have him hurt for anything!” cried Buffalo Bill. “Captain, you can settle the truce with the Ute chief, I reckon, while I try to hunt up Mainwaring and the girls.”
 
“There is nothing to settle,” said Bear Killer gravely. “I have had a big fight and have killed many men. I have lost a great many braves, too. My brother is among them. I do not want to lose any more. The palefaces can go their way in peace, and I will go mine in the same way if they will let me.”
 
“We have no war with you,” said Captain Meinhold. “Only when the red man raises the hatchet17 to strike at us do we strike back.”
 
“It is well. Bear Killer will go bury his dead, and then he will go back over the mountains to the Wasatch, for there will be great mourning in all his villages. But we have many scalps to carry back.”
 
The chief rode away, and then Captain Meinhold joined Buffalo Bill again.
 
The latter had just returned from an unavailing search for the trail of Mainwaring and the others, but Wild Bill and the other scouts were still looking for it.
 
“I’m afraid Mainwaring has met with bad luck, or we should have heard from him before now,” said the border king. “Brave and rash, he has hurried on, and perhaps been shot down by those villains18 who have now got the girls in their power. I dreaded19 to keep on looking, for I feared that I would come across his body.”
 
A shout from Wild Bill, who came hurrying back, told them he had news of some sort for them.
 
“I’ve found where they took their horses,” he said. “It was a pretty strong party, for some of them remained behind while the rest went forward and attacked the four Indians.”
 
 
“Have you seen any sign of Mainwaring?” asked Buffalo Bill eagerly.
 
“Yes; he and Norfolk Ben have been taken and carried along. Their tracks are plain where the horses were kept.”
 
“It is strange that they were not killed on the spot. But we must take the trail at once—that is if Captain Meinhold will do it.”
 
“Of course,” answered the brave officer. “I came to help you out of a scrape, if you were in one, and I and my men will see this business through.”
 
“Thank you, captain. Some day I hope to repay you. The safety of Mainwaring means more to me than I can say.”
 
“I never knew Buffalo Bill forget to pay a debt, either to a friend or an enemy,” said Wild Bill. “But we are losing time. Suppose I take the scouts and get along on the trail? I don’t believe there are more of those rascals20 than we can handle if we should chance to come up with them.”
 
“I’ll join you with the rest of our fellows, and then the captain and the troopers can come along at their leisure,” said Buffalo Bill.
 
“We had better all try to keep together,” suggested the captain. “They cannot have much start, and we surely can overtake them.”
 
“We’ll do it!” said Buffalo Bill, with grim determination; “or there’s one of us here who’ll break his neck trying! If young Mainwaring has been lost or killed I won’t be able to forgive myself easily for letting him go off in that way, with only Norfolk Ben to accompany him. I made a serious error in judgment21 in not crediting what he said about seeing the girls.”
 
This was a thing which the border king very seldom had occasion to confess, but, like most men who are not in the habit of making mistakes, he was perfectly22 ready to admit them when he did.
 
The captain now sent back orders for the troops to ride around to where the trail could be taken, and then went with Buffalo Bill to the point, guided by Wild Bill.
 
Sure enough there were tracks showing where a large band of horses had stood for some time, for the ground was all trodden up, and then on the thus softened23 ground the tracks of men could be seen.
 
Among these the keen eye of Buffalo Bill soon detected the boot marks made by Mainwaring, the brogan tracks of Ben, and in one place the small impressions left by the girls’ feet.
 
“We’re surely on their trail now,” he said, when he made this last discovery.
 
By the time all the horses had been brought up from the place where they had been left at the foot of the cliff the troop, with the rest of the scouts, were there.
 
Steve Hathaway came with them.
 
When he saw the tracks he shook his head.
 
“Boss,” he said to Buffalo Bill, “you might as well count your friend and Norfolk Ben dead and the girls safe in the hands of those fellows. Bill Harkness, the boss of the Death Riders, has been here. Do you see that track? That big track? His foot is the biggest in the gang.”
 
“I’ll soon have the measure of it,” said Buffalo Bill, springing from his horse.
 
“Be a little easy, mate, and listen to me, for I may help you more than you think of. These chaps are strong, and they can lay for you in a dozen places between here and Nick’s Tavern24, where they quarter.”
 
“Let them lay, Steve,” said Buffalo Bill. “We’ll lay them out as soon as we get within range!”
 
 
“I can’t see him ride right into the jaws25 of death!” cried Steve Hathaway. “He saved me once, and I’ll save him now!”
 
And he rode on at a gallop10 to join Buffalo Bill at the head of the column.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 buffalo 1Sby4     
n.(北美)野牛;(亚洲)水牛
参考例句:
  • Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
  • The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。
2 palaver NKLx0     
adj.壮丽堂皇的;n.废话,空话
参考例句:
  • We don't want all that palaver,do we?我们不想那样小题大做,不是吗?
  • Progress is neither proclamation nor palaver.进步不是宣言,也不是空谈。
3 scouts e6d47327278af4317aaf05d42afdbe25     
侦察员[机,舰]( scout的名词复数 ); 童子军; 搜索; 童子军成员
参考例句:
  • to join the Scouts 参加童子军
  • The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组,然后开始巡逻这个地区。
4 killer rpLziK     
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者
参考例句:
  • Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
  • The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。
5 prevaricate E1NzG     
v.支吾其词;说谎;n.推诿的人;撒谎的人
参考例句:
  • Tell us exactly what happened and do not prevaricate.有什麽就原原本本地告诉我们吧,别躲躲闪闪的。
  • Didn't prevaricate but answered forthrightly and honestly.毫不欺骗而是坦言相告。
6 crafty qzWxC     
adj.狡猾的,诡诈的
参考例句:
  • He admired the old man for his crafty plan.他敬佩老者的神机妙算。
  • He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家,也是个狡黠的独裁者。
7 warrior YgPww     
n.勇士,武士,斗士
参考例句:
  • The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
  • A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。
8 nervously tn6zFp     
adv.神情激动地,不安地
参考例句:
  • He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇,努力忍着不哭出来。
  • He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。
9 galloping galloping     
adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下,它就奔驰起来了。
  • Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速,日新月异。
10 gallop MQdzn     
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展
参考例句:
  • They are coming at a gallop towards us.他们正朝着我们飞跑过来。
  • The horse slowed to a walk after its long gallop.那匹马跑了一大阵后慢下来缓步而行。
11 trifling SJwzX     
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的
参考例句:
  • They quarreled over a trifling matter.他们为这种微不足道的事情争吵。
  • So far Europe has no doubt, gained a real conveniency,though surely a very trifling one.直到现在为止,欧洲无疑地已经获得了实在的便利,不过那确是一种微不足道的便利。
12 cavalry Yr3zb     
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队
参考例句:
  • We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
  • The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。
13 truce EK8zr     
n.休战,(争执,烦恼等的)缓和;v.以停战结束
参考例句:
  • The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
  • She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。
14 passionate rLDxd     
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的
参考例句:
  • He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
  • He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。
15 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
16 ascent TvFzD     
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高
参考例句:
  • His rapid ascent in the social scale was surprising.他的社会地位提高之迅速令人吃惊。
  • Burke pushed the button and the elevator began its slow ascent.伯克按动电钮,电梯开始缓慢上升。
17 hatchet Dd0zr     
n.短柄小斧;v.扼杀
参考例句:
  • I shall have to take a hatchet to that stump.我得用一把短柄斧来劈这树桩。
  • Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.别用斧头拍打朋友额头上的苍蝇。
18 villains ffdac080b5dbc5c53d28520b93dbf399     
n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 );罪犯;(小说、戏剧等中的)反面人物;淘气鬼
参考例句:
  • The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
19 dreaded XuNzI3     
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The dreaded moment had finally arrived. 可怕的时刻终于来到了。
  • He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. 他害怕非得在医院过圣诞节不可。 来自《用法词典》
20 rascals 5ab37438604a153e085caf5811049ebb     
流氓( rascal的名词复数 ); 无赖; (开玩笑说法)淘气的人(尤指小孩); 恶作剧的人
参考例句:
  • "Oh, but I like rascals. "唔,不过我喜欢流氓。
  • "They're all second-raters, black sheep, rascals. "他们都是二流人物,是流氓,是恶棍。
21 judgment e3xxC     
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
参考例句:
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
22 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
23 softened 19151c4e3297eb1618bed6a05d92b4fe     
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰
参考例句:
  • His smile softened slightly. 他的微笑稍柔和了些。
  • The ice cream softened and began to melt. 冰淇淋开始变软并开始融化。
24 tavern wGpyl     
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店
参考例句:
  • There is a tavern at the corner of the street.街道的拐角处有一家酒馆。
  • Philip always went to the tavern,with a sense of pleasure.菲利浦总是心情愉快地来到这家酒菜馆。
25 jaws cq9zZq     
n.口部;嘴
参考例句:
  • The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
  • The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。


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