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 hiredmany 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 havelooked 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!"
