CHAPTER FIFTEEN #2
Red Fox answered at once. "It is true your daughter and I love each other.
But, whether I wish to take her from you or not is not the reason I come to you with this offer.
I love these horses. I have talked to them, and I used to brush them daily.
I looked after their welfare for many years before trouble came between you and me.
I see now these animals do not look well.
Their coats lack luster and color. This means they are not being properly brushed after being ridden.
Many have untreated wounds and bite marks, also untreated.
I see one mare who has been bred too often.
I saw a mare with a foal whose ribs are showing.
She will die if left on her own. Your animals need to be let out of their fencing to find better pasture, and when they have better pasture, they need to be looked after well so they are not stolen from you by your enemies.
It is true that I love your daughter and wish to see her often.
But, this is not the reason I am asking to watch over your horses.
I will care for them and bring them back to health. "
Fehér shook his head, then stared at him with disbelief.
"I will show you this which I have said to you, if you disbelieve me. I am only concerned that you have not, yourself, seen this neglect before now."
Fehér took his hat from his head and whacked it on his thigh. "You are right. I had noticed some of the conditions you speak of, but, since I cannot watch them myself, I have had to rely on boys from Fort Benton. So I guess this means"—Fehér looked at him and squinted—"you're hired."
Red Fox signed his agreement and took up his position within the pony herd, going from one horse to the other, brushing them, taking burrs from their coats and opening the gates to lead them all to better pasture.
Red Fox hadn't lied to József Fehér. He had, instead, left unsaid his real reason for volunteering to attend to the homestead's pony herd: he wished to study this man, Maximillian, and discover the secret papers.
They existed. He must find them. And, since the family always included him to partake in the evening meal, Red Fox had much opportunity to accomplish his study of this man, Maximillian.
And so, it came to be that, not only did the homestead's pony herd benefit from Red Fox's care of them, he was able to watch and observe this yellow-bellied man as often as possible.
Gaining the help of some of the boys from Fort Benton to watch the herd when he was studying Maximillian, Red Fox was able to discover patterns in the man's life, including Maximillian's interactions with others.
He became the man's shadow when in the household, watching him even when the man was alone.
Red Fox took note of the man's blind spots and, in doing so, witnessed the man lusting after his own comfort, always putting himself first before others, even those of his lover.
Although there were Indians who did the same, they were few.
Most Indians—even in enemy tribes—thought first of the tribe's welfare, as it must be.
For, without the tribe, a man's ability to survive against the elements, as well as against his enemies, was almost nil.
Next was a warrior's family, both his own and his woman's.
And, lastly, a man provided for his own comfort.
Red Fox could only conclude that this fellow from the city of New York was not a good man. And, from this, he supposed that, like an enemy, Maximillian would steal from others what he could not, himself, obtain by his own efforts.
And so, Red Fox came to understand there was something the man wanted from Poka'aki's family besides a title. But, what was it?
He did not hate the man, since hatred was bad medicine, indeed. But, he also did not like the self-absorption he witnessed in the man. There were too many examples of Maximillian's mindset to be counted, but Red Fox had looked with a sharp eye at the Easterner's inconsiderate treatment of Poka'aki.
However, it went further. He had watched as the man bragged to others of his importance in his occupation while at the same time speaking in a bad way of others who took pride in their own doings and jobs. And, all this Red Fox had seen without too much difficulty.
From his careful observation of this man, Red Fox now knew the man's weak spot: he held no respect for the dignity or life of others. Indeed, Red Fox became convinced this man intended to ruin Poka'aki's family while at the same time gaining advantage to himself.
And so, over the next few days, he stalked the man, using the invisibility knack of the trained scout. He now was able to watch the man in his own quarters, having found a hidden position atop the solid canopy above the man's bed.
And, then it happened.
Within the passing of only seven trips of the sun across the blue, it was on the eighth night when Red Fox watched as the man was making his way to his room.
It was rare for Maxmillian to use his own quarters for sleeping; generally the man spent his evening hours with his mistress.
But, on this night, he kept to his own quarters.
Having obtained a position of invisibility earlier in the evening using the canopy above the man's bed, Red Fox watched as the man opened a drawer in a small chest of drawers alongside the bed. Reaching in, the man pulled out a key from a place in the far back left corner.
Straightening up, Maximillian then paced across the room to another wooden bureau; whereupon, he opened the second drawer down from the top of the chest. From this drawer, Maximillian reached into the far back right corner and pulled out a metal box.
He then opened this box with the key he had obtained from the first chest of drawers.
In amazement, Red Fox looked on as this Easterner extracted another, second key.
With this new key, the man trod across the room to the special place where white people were known to keep their clothing, a wooden structure Red Fox had heard referred to as an "armoire.
" Beneath the clothing and hidden by long coats and pants, Maximillian extracted yet another metal box.
This he opened with the second key, and, once opened, there was another metal box within it.
He opened this box with the same, second key and from this the Easterner extracted yet another, third key.
Leaving that particular container on the floor of the armoire, the man paced toward the bed, and, coming down onto bended knees, he reached beneath it to pull out yet another metal case.
This one was slightly different from the others; it was slender, longer and wider.
And, from this particular case, the man pulled out two sheets of parchment paper.
Then, this sly Easterner glanced over the papers carefully, and as though he were appeased, he smiled, although there was little joy in the gesture.
Apparently assured all was in order, Maximillian delicately placed the papers back into their metal container and pushed it into place beneath the bed, repeating the entire process with the boxes and keys.
Not once did Maximillian look up, which was one reason why Red Fox had chosen this particular hiding place, knowing it was rare for men, as well as wild animals, to look up.
Then, straightening and stretching his shoulders, this black-hearted Easterner left his room, most likely to seek out his ladylove.
Red Fox waited for a long while to ensure the man did not return. Then, like a shadow, Red Fox slid down from his concealment atop the bed's canopy, and within a short time, repeating every step with all three keys, it was he who held the document.
With care, Red Fox replaced each box exactly and in the same place where he had found them. Next, because Red Fox already knew where the man's fake document was held, the one he showed to those around him, it was easy enough to grab hold of the folder in which that one was kept.
Then, with these two documents now within his possession, Red Fox quietly, and with a stealth which would have made a cat proud, left the room.
****
There would be no sleep for him this night.
The Fehér ranch did not include a barn for the horses, the elder Fehér choosing to let their ponies graze openly, as did the Indians. It was one reason Red Fox had originally been hired many years ago—to watch over the family's herd of horses.
And so, Red Fox set out quickly toward the horse pasture, the enclosure fenced in to keep the ponies from roaming too far.
Then, seeing the ponies were resting and that they were being watched by one of the boys from the fort, Red Fox retreated into a small cave-like indentation within the bluffs.
There, he made a small smokeless fire at the cave's entrance, and then he began his search over the documents, first looking at the place on the paper where the Creator had shown him was the lie. But, he saw no difference.
And so, he started at the beginning, looking at every word, every letter and every symbol until his eyes blurred from the strain.
It was toward the dark early-morning hours when, at last, he beheld the one discrepancy in the two documents.
True, it was tiny. But, it was in the exact place where the Creator had shown him it would be.
So minuscule was it, at first Red Fox thought his eyes were seeing double, especially because he was so tired. But, there it was at last.
There was a misplaced dot, surrounded by several numbers.
It would be undetectable to most men and women, as it had been to him, so tiny was the difference. But, what did it mean?
It had to be the lie shown to him by the Creator. Somehow and in some way this tiny mark changed the document. But, what was it about this tiny symbol that made the whole document a lie?
He would ask George. But, meanwhile, the present task concerning him greatly was returning to Maximillian's bedroom and replacing the documents exactly as he had found them.
This, he would do at once. And hopefully, this mad Easterner would still be asleep within the chamber of Woman-the-man-refuses-to-marry, he being none the wiser that someone had found his treasured hidden document.
****
"My friend and brother-in-law, what is the difference between a small dot"—with a stick, he drew the symbol · upon the dirt—"placed incorrectly in the white man's words?"
"I do not know," replied George. "Show me what you mean."
As the two of them sat at the side of the ranch's pony herd, Red Fox picked up a nearby stick and wrote out the symbols:
$100000.00—$10000.000
Asked Red Fox, "What does it mean?"
At first, George frowned, reading the numbers over and over. But then, all at once, he laughed, then said, "It could mean the difference of ninety thousand dollars. That's what it might mean. The second dot is misplaced and is an error."
"I do not understand. Could the second figure be a lie?"
"Yes, in a sense it could be, although it is probably only an error. Let me write it out differently," said George, taking the stick from Red Fox, and he wrote, adding commas:
$100,000.00—$10,000.000
"One hundred thousand, point zero, zero, dollars is different from ten thousand, point zero, zero, zero, dollars, although both contain seven zeros.
The decimal, or dot, could mean the difference of ninety thousand dollars because it is this symbol called the decimal"—he pointed to it—"that defines the difference between dollars and cents.
Moving this dot one place to the left changes the values of all the zeros in the number.
The comma groups numbers together and with it one can more easily read the value of the number. Why do you ask?"
Red Fox hesitated a moment, but then said, "The man you know as Maximillian has another document that he keeps hidden and requires many keys—also hidden—to find.
I have looked at both these documents to discover the lie in one of the white man's papers.
I read them all, every word, every letter and every symbol.
This"—he pointed at the misplaced dot—"is the only difference between the two papers. "
George sat for a moment until, all at once, he frowned. Asked George, "My friend, my partner, what papers are these?"
"They are—"
Red Fox had opened his mouth to answer the question, but suddenly a feminine voice coming closer and closer was shouting at them.
Looking up, Red Fox saw his sister, Sweetgrass Woman, crying and running toward them both.
She appeared hysterical, and between sobs, she cried out, "Hurry, my man!
Hurry, my brother! A scout has come with a message for us.
Our father has taken ill and is dying. He is calling for you, my brother, and your wife; as well as for you and me, my husband, to come to him quickly.
He says he must speak to us all before he dies.
Come, both of you! Hurry! We must go to him at once! "