Wolf Eyes became dubious. “What is the use in just looking?”

“So we will know for certain.”

“And once we know, what then? Is it good for us, or is it bad, that the white men no longer fight each other?”

Steals the Ponies considered. “I fear it will not be good. If the Texans no longer war against the men of the North, they may make more war against The People. If the ranger society and the long knives make peace with each other, they may join together to fight us.”

Wolf Eyes remained disappointed that a pony raid was not to be part of the expedition. “Perhaps if some teibos should attack us and we kill them, we may take their horses.”

“It is my intention that we see but are not seen. We leave tomorrow, before the sun.”

He traveled light on such trips, not wanting to encumber his horse with excess weight. He packed dried meat strips and pemmican in a leather pouch and tested his bowstring to be certain it would not break should the unforeseen force him to use it.

A boy moved up beside him in the firelight. “You are going somewhere, big brother?”

“Not far, Badger Boy. I will not be gone for long.”

“Would you take me with you?” Badger Boy was always begging to go somewhere, but he was still too young for any mission that involved danger. He had earned his name by fighting to a standstill all the other boys who tried to pick on him. Steals the Ponies considered Badger Boy an appropriate name because the lad had that animal’s unyielding temperament when provoked. He fought with a badger’s tenacity.

“Not this time. You must grow some more.” Steals the Ponies placed the flat of his hand against the top of the boy’s head, then raised it. “When you are this high, then you can go.”

The fire blazed up unexpectedly, and Steals the Ponies was reminded that the boy’s eyes were much lighter in color than his own. In daylight they were blue. Steals the Ponies had long ago become accustomed to that fact, yet now and again it struck him as if for the first time, reminding him that he and the boy were not of the same blood.

“This is your new brother,” Buffalo Caller had said when he brought the young captive home. “Teach him so he will forget the white man’s ways.”