Page:B M Bower - Heritage of the Sioux.djvu/76

THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX like fox watching for rabbit. You not friend to Bill Holmes?"

"Me? No—I not friend, querida mia. I got business. I sell Bill Holmes one silver bridle, perhaps. I don' know—mus' talk about it. Yoh tell him come here by big rock, sweetheart?"

Annie-Many-Ponies took a minute for deliberation—which is the Indian way. Ramon, having learned patience, said no more but watched her slant-eyed.

"I tell," she promised at last, and added, "I go now." Then she slipped away. And Ramon, though he stood for several minutes by the rock smiling queerly and staring down the arroyo, caught not the slightest glimpse of her after she left him. He knew that she would deliver faithfully his message to Bill Holmes, she had given her word. That was one great advantage, considered Ramon, in dealing with those direct, uncompromising natures. She might torment him with her aloofness and her reticence, but once he had won her to a full confidence and submission he need not trouble himself further about her loyalty. She would tell Bill Holmes—and, what 64