What himself and his warriors most ardently desired now, went on Crow-Scalper, was to show themselves friends of the friends of Golden Face. To this end they proposed to accompany the waggon train as an escort. There were, he feared, bands of very bad Indians roaming the country, who would leave them unmolested if they had for escort a Dahcotah war-party. This course would wipe out all bad blood between them, and atone for the mistake they had made in attacking their dear friends the whites. So having settled this to his own satisfaction, Crow-Scalper suggested that a proper and most harmonious way of cementing their new friendship would be for the white men to join camp with their red brothers and to invite the latter to participate in a feast. Vipan managed to preserve his gravity while translating these proposals for the benefit of his companions. The chiefs meanwhile watched every expression of their faces with steady and scrutinising gaze. "They must take us for born idiots," said Winthrop. "Thunder! I guess there's no end to the sass of a redskin," said Sam Sharp, the cowboy. "Travel with a war-party of pesky Sioux! Haw-haw-haw!" "Better conciliate them to a small extent, though I never did believe in buying off your Danes," said Winthrop. "I'll give them an order for coffee and sugar and tobacco on the post we last quitted; but I'll see them hanged before they'll get anything out of us here." This resolve Vipan communicated to the chiefs. The white Colonel felt quite strong enough to protect his own camp and did not need the escort so kindly offered. At the same time his red brothers could best show their friendship by retiring altogether and leaving him quite alone. The chiefs had admitted their inability to control their young men under all circumstances, and this being so, it would be best to part good friends. They could proceed to Fort Jervis and obtain the supplies, for which he would give them an order. The emissaries saw that the game was up. They might eventually wear out the patience and watchfulness of the whites, and obtain the scalps and plunder they so ardently desired, but they would have to fight. No safe and easy way of treachery lay open to the coveted spoil, and this they recognised. Then Mountain Cat, who up till now had preserved a stern and contemptuous silence, said: "Golden Face, the friend and brother of the Dahcotah! Should he not rather be called Double Face?" The sneering and vindictive tone was not lost upon the other two whites, although they understood not a word of its burden. Glancing at Vipan, they noticed that he was as unconcerned as though the other had never spoken. "Does one friend kill another?" went on the savage, his eyes flashing with hatred. "Ha! More than one of our young men has been shot this day. Who was their slayer? Golden Face--the friend and brother of the Dahcotah nation!"