"Yes, we need a signal if one of us find them. I do not want to leave her alone too long though. As I fear your father will not get better. Especially if she is right about the toad stools."
"Agreed. We will gather at the same place, if one of us finds them, we will send one of our men back to the meeting place to leave a man to report to the other. I want to bring him back here to face his own people."
"Sounds good. You know, if Big Knife is killed during this search by one of us, Sasha will be distraught." Black Wolf commented.
"Do not fret over that. I have seen the look in her eyes, it is not for Big Knife any longer, it is for you. She may not know it yet, but my sister is no fool, and you are a man who loves and takes care of her. She is falling in love with you."
Black Wolf grinned, "I hope that is true."
"I have seen it, and you will too, soon."
"I look forward to that moment." Black Wolf smiled now.
"You love her, that is good. You will be my brother now."
"It is agreed. And between the two of us we can keep the Wind River Valley a peaceful reservation." Black Wolf smiled and shook arms with him.
"Yes, my brother, it will take much work to find him. You know, I knew he was making love with Naomie. But the way my sister acted I could not tell her at the time. Perhaps I should have. I didn't want to see her hurt. Right now, I want to kill him!" Nakota exclaimed vehemently.
"I can understand that. He has hurt her and your father too. He must be dishonored by his tribe."
"I would rather kill him with my bare hands." He glanced at Black Wolf. "I am sorry, I have not hated this much in a long time. My father has taught me over the years the wisdom of peace, and for his sake I will not kill Big Knife if I can help it. But the wanting to, grows in my heart."
"It is hard to bear such betrayal." Black Wolf agreed.
"Like you, for hurting her, I am angry, but for hurting your father, the chief, I can feel the anger growing inside me too. But, to merely kill him won't accomplish much. We must make the others see that his way is the wrong way, and that he has caused this grief on your people."
"You are wise beyond your years Black Wolf."
"I had a good teacher, my father." Black Wolf smiled.
"How soon can you be ready to leave?" Nakota asked.
"Within the hour, I will go now, so we can return to help here."
"Good."
Black Wolf went back to his camp and called the people to listen. "Chief Walking Bear of the Arapaho is ill. He has been poisoned by one of his own. The one responsible is Big Knife who has left the tribe with some of his tribesmen. He intends to make war with the blue coats. This will break our treaty and we cannot let him do this. This is our home and we want to stay here. We must stop him, as there will be much killing if we don't. I ask my people to help me fight him and bring him to justice in front of his own people. How many will go with me?"
The tribe mumbled unto themselves for only a moment, when half the men raised their spears that they would go.
"Good, we must hunt him down and take him back to his tribe, if we don't, our own people could be in trouble. For making war they could move us to a bad place where nothing grows, and hunting is bad. As we are his enemy too. We must go quickly and get this done."
Several raised a war hoop and Black Wolf was glad that most of the men wanted to help.
One of his closest friends, Bear Paw came forth. "Our chief is right. This Big Knife can cause us all much trouble. We must find him! He has been here once already trying to stir up more people to join him in this fight."
The others whooped and hollered.
The elders agreed too it was bad medicine to let a man like this run wild on their reservation.
The oldest of the elders stood up and nodded, "Go and put a stop to this troublemaker!"
"Thank you!" Black Wolf smiled.
They rode to the Arapaho camp and met up with Nakota. Black Wolf introduced him to his men. "This is t
he son of Chief Walking Bear, who lays helpless now because of Big Knife. Remember his name, Nakota as he will be chief one day of the Arapaho."