Therefore I say go on, kill them and rescue Sad-Eyes." Now I saw that the Fates to which I had appealed had decided against me and that I must accept their decree.

With a sick and sinking heart--for I did not at all like the business--I wondered for a moment what had led Hans to take this view, which was directly opposite to any I had expected from him.

Of course his superstition about the Great Medicine had something to do with it, but I felt convinced that this was not all.
Even then I guessed that two arguments appealed to him, of which the first was that he desired, if possible, to put an end to this intolerable and unceasing hunt which had worn us all out, no matter what that end might be.

The second and more powerful, however, was, I believed, and rightly, that the idea of this stealthy, midnight blow appealed irresistibly to the craft of his half-wild nature in which the strains of the leopard and the snake seemed to mingle with that of the human being.

For be it remembered that notwithstanding his veneer of civilisation, Hans was a savage whose forefathers for countless ages had preserved themselves alive by means of such attacks and stratagems.
The die having been cast, in the same infinitesimal whispers we made our arrangements, which were few and simple.