They were in their war paint and there could be no doubt of their hostility.

Carson spoke in a conciliating manner and invited them into his camp to have a smoke and talk.

The invitation was accepted.
The hypocritical ceremony continued some time, when the warriors began talking among themselves.
They spoke in Sioux at first, their purpose being to lay the impending massacre against those people, but in their excitement, they dropped back to their own tongue and the whole appalling truth became speedily known to Carson and through him to his companions.
He sat on the ground with the furious warriors, and heard them agree that at the moment the leader (as they recognized Carson to be), laid down his arms to take the pipe in his mouth, they would leap upon and kill him.

They would then massacre all the rest.

Inasmuch as they were powerful enough to carry out this diabolical plan, it will be admitted that Carson's nerves were pretty thoroughly tested, when the pipe passing from one to the other was within a few minutes of reaching him.
Most of the men with the mountaineer were Mexicans, very deficient in courage and in a hand to hand encounter, the Cheyennes could overcome the party in the space of a few minutes.
It was in such crises as these that the remarkable fertility of resources possessed by Kit Carson displayed themselves.