“On behalf of Toad,” Geist clarified. “He has left it to me to drum up business for the trading post. I figure the best way to do that is to hook up with one of the tribes and have them spread word among the other tribes about how friendly we are.”
“Me sorry again,” Chases Rabbits said. “What mean hook up? Like hook Nate King use to catch fish?”
Petrie laughed.
“No, not like a fishhook,” Geist said, glaring at Petrie. “Hook up means to be a special friend. We would like to be special friends with the Crows. As a token of our friendship, I brought four horses for…” He seemed to catch himself. “I brought three horses as gifts for Long Hair and one horse as a gift for you.”
“Me?” Chases Rabbits said in great surprise.
“I would like you to be our interpreter. In exchange, you’ll get free gifts. The horse is just the first of many.”
The prospect of a flood of wealth dazzled Chases Rabbits to such an extent that he nearly missed what Geist said next.
“The rest of your people will get special treatment, too. We’ll give you discounts on the trade goods that we won’t give others.”
“Discounts?”
“A blanket that might cost someone from another tribe four buffalo robes will only cost your tribe three. That sort of thing.”
“It be nice of you.”
Geist reached over and patted Chases Rabbits on the arm. “Like I said, we want to be special friends with the Crows.”
“Why us?” Chases Rabbits thought to ask. “There be many tribes. The Shoshones, the Arapahos, the Nez Perce—” He would have gone on, but Geist had an answer.
“The Shoshones already have a special white friend in Nate King. As for the others, they’re too far away. You Crows are the closest.”
Long Hair impatiently asked what the white man was talking about.
Chases Rabbits explained. He made it a point to end with “They want me to talk for them in council because I speak the white tongue so well.”
The burly warrior on Long Hair’s right raised his head. “This is a good thing for the Apsaalooke,” he said, using their name for themselves. “The Shoshones have done well by their friendship with Grizzly Killer. Why should we not benefit by having this white man for our friend?”
Another warrior spoke. “Think of what it will mean. More horses. More guns. More knives.”
“More pots for the women,” a warrior at the end said, and they all grinned.
“It is a good thing,” Long Hair agreed, and turned to Chases Rabbit. “Tell the white man we accept. Thank him for me for the horses. Say that from this day on, we will regard him and the other whites at the trading post as our brothers. They are always welcome at our fire.”
Chases Rabbits translated Long Hair’s acceptance to the whites. Geist was pleased. “I can’t tell you how much this means to us. You won’t regret it.”
A pipe was produced and passed around.
Chases Rabbits sat straight and tall. His status in the tribe had changed; he was now a man of importance. He thought of Raven On The Ground and how impressed she would be. He couldn’t wait to tell the Kings. He was sure they would be happy for him.
Chapter Seven
The pair was barely out of sight of the Crow village when Geist shifted in his saddle and snapped, “You almost gave us away back there when you laughed, damn you.”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” Petrie said.
Geist drew rein. “I’ll talk to you any damn way I please. There is too much at stake for you to act the fool.”
“Now, hold on,” Petrie said. “They have no idea what this is about. That boy and his fishhook was close to the truth, but he doesn’t know it. That’s why I laughed.”
Leveling his rifle, Geist asked in a tone pregnant with menace, “Are you talking back to me?”
“Never,” Petrie said, staring calmly at the rifle’s muzzle. “How long have we been together? I’ve never had cause to complain. You outthink everybody. All I do is kill.”
Geist lowered his long gun and flicked his reins. “I’m irritable, I suppose, because there’s so much at stake. We can’t have them suspect.”
“They have no more brains than cows.”
“And like cows we’ll use them to our own ends. Six months from now we’ll be back where we were before that sheriff and his posse closed in. Only better, because out here there’s no law.”
“It was the best idea we ever had, coming west of the Mississippi.”
“We?” Geist said.
“Well, you know.”
“I should have thought of it years ago. We can do whatever we please out here. Think about that. Whatever we damn well please.” Geist’s face practically glowed with fierce delight. “There’s no one to stop us.”
“What about St. Vrain and his partners, and that busybody King?”
“All St. Vrain cares about is his precious fort. The Bent brothers have ties to the Cheyenne and the Arapaho, not to mention the Crows. They won’t give a lick what we do.”
“That still leaves Nate King.”
“Yes, it does. But if we do this right, if we do it smart, we’ll have everything in place before he can lift a finger against us. By then, it will be too late.”
“I can shoot him so it never comes to that.”
“Use your damn head. If we kill him, we’ll make the Shoshones mad, and we want their trade as much as the others.”
“They’ll never know it was me,” Petrie said.
“Maybe not. But there’s that son of his to consider. I had a long talk with St. Vrain about this Zachary King. He’s our main worry. He wiped out an entire trading post for stirring up trouble with the redskins.”
“What do you mean, wiped out?”
“What the hell do you think I mean? He and some Shoshones killed every last man. Killed some Crows who were involved, too, which didn’t sit well with the Crows. Yet another reason for us to choose them and not another tribe.” Geist shook his head. “No, this Zach King is a he-bear. The genuine article. We’ll tread light so as not to involve him.”
“A lot of trouble to go to,” Petrie said. “I could kill him as well as his pa.”
Geist rode for a while in silence, then said, “If it comes to that. In the meantime, do as I say.”
“Don’t you mean as Toad says?”
“Isn’t he something?” Geist said.
The river they were following flowed through gorgeous country lush with vegetation and teeming with game. They spooked a female elk that barreled away through the undergrowth with her calf at her tail.
“That reminds me,” Petrie said. “Why didn’t you ask them about the women?”
“One step at a time,” Geist replied. “First we win their confidence, and then we set it up.”
“I can’t wait,” Petrie said.
“Me neither.”
Chapter Eight
The temperature was pushing one hundred the day that Zach King and two Shoshones came down out of the mountains to Mud Hollow. They drew rein on a hill that overlooked the new mercantile. Zach took in the horses that lined the hitch rail and the bustle of activity. “What we heard is true.”
His uncle, Touch The Clouds, grunted. “If the rest is true, you can stop worrying.”
“I have to see for myself.”
The other Shoshone said, “Your father is satisfied, but you are still suspicious.”
“I’m not my father, Drags The Rope.”
The warrior smiled. “No, Stalking Coyote, you are not Grizzly Killer.”
“The whites have a saying,” Zach said. “Better safe than sorry. It’s better if these traders prove to us we can trust them than if we take it for granted and end up like before.” He kneed his dun.
The slope was broken by a new trail, courtesy of the many who had already paid the trading post a visit. Below, Crows, Nez Perce, and several Flatheads were moving about or talking.