"Then after them," muttered Vorlange. "It was through your stupidity that the girl got away. Yellow Elk, I always put you down for being smarter than that."
"Yellow Elk smart enough!" growled the Indian chief.
"No, you're not. In some things you are like a block of wood," grumbled Vorlange. The escape of Nellie had put him out a good deal.
The manner of the government spy provoked the Indian. To be called a block of wood is, to the red man, a direct insult. Yellow Elk straightened up.
"White man big fool!" he hissed. "Yellow Elk not make chase for him," and he folded his arms.
"You won't go after the boy and the girl?" queried Vorlange.
"No—white man hunt for himself if he want to catch the little woman again."
And having thus delivered himself, Yellow Elk sat down by the brook and refused to budge another step.
The Indian's objections to continuing the search were more numerous than appeared on the surface. The so-called insult, bad as it was, was merely an excuse to hide other motives. Yellow Elk had known Vorlange for years and as the spy was naturally a mean fellow, the redskin hated him accordingly.
