ANXIOUS MOMENTS
After White Otter and his companions left them, the Minneconjoux war
party rode cautiously toward the north to find the hiding place of which
Dancing Rabbit had told. They realized the peril to which they were
exposing themselves, and Sun Bird took every precaution to guard against
blundering upon the Blackfeet. Running Dog and a companion scouted to
the westward, Feather Dog and Proud Hawk again reconnoitered toward the
east, and Sun Bird, Sitting Eagle and the lad, Dancing Rabbit, rode in
advance.
"How far away is this place?" Sun Bird asked, anxiously.
"It begins over there where you see those little trees," replied Dancing
Rabbit, as he pointed to a few stunted cottonwoods some distance ahead
of them.
"Yes, I know about that place," declared Sitting Eagle. "I have been
there. It is a good place to hide in."
Dancing Rabbit said that the shelter toward which they were moving was a
deep ravine which formerly had been the bed of a good-sized stream. It
extended directly across the plain from west to east, and went to the
very foothills of the great mountains. The young Minneconjoux declared
that, once in the bottom of that deep ravine, the war party would be
invisible to their foes, and it would be possible to remain hidden until
they reached the timbered ridges.
"It is good," declared Sun Bird. "When we get to that place we will hide
in the day, and travel toward the mountains when it gets dark."
Before they reached the ravine, however, they saw a horseman ride
cautiously over the ridge to the westward. When he reached the bottom of
the slope he rode rapidly to and fro, and appeared to be trying to
attract the attention of Sun Bird and his companions. It was the danger
signal, and the Minneconjoux watched him with grave attention. When he
saw that he had attracted their notice, he stopped and raised his right
hand above his head. Then he suddenly swept it downward and backward. It
was the signal to approach. Although he was a considerable distance
away, Sun Bird and Sitting Eagle agreed that it was Running Dog.
"He wants to tell us about something," said Sun Bird. "Go, Dancing
Rabbit, and bring us his words."
The lad immediately galloped away to meet the distant Minneconjoux
scout. Sun Bird and Sitting Eagle decided to wait where they were until
he returned. In a few moments they saw the war party riding toward them.
The Minneconjoux had discovered Running Dog, and were watching Dancing
Rabbit as he raced across the plain. When they reached Sun Bird,
however, they concealed their curiosity and waited for the youthful war
leader to tell them what had happened.
"My friends, that scout over there is Running Dog," said Sun Bird. "He
has made the danger signal. Then he called us. Dancing Rabbit has gone
to bring us his words. We will wait here until he comes back."
It was not long before they saw the eager lad racing toward them with
the message from Running Dog. He was urging his pony to top speed, and
the Sioux believed he brought word of great importance. Running Dog had
already disappeared into the dusk.
"I have brought you the words of Running Dog," said Dancing Rabbit, as
he stopped beside Sun Bird.
"Tell me what he says," replied Sun Bird.
"Running Dog says that the Crows and the Blackfeet are fighting,"
declared Dancing Rabbit. "He says it is a big fight. He says the Crows
are stronger than the Blackfeet. Running Dog says that is bad. He says
there must be many Blackfeet at the village. He believes that a big war
party may be coming this way. He says we must go to that gully and hide.
He says he will come there when it gets dark. Those are the words of
Running Dog."
"Come, lead us to that place," said Sun Bird.
The glow was fading from the western sky and the twilight shadows were
gathering upon the plain when the Sioux finally reached the dry stream
bed. It offered an ideal hiding place, and Sun Bird looked upon it with
delight.
"See, my brothers, this great gully leads far over there toward the
mountains," he said. "If we follow it, I do not believe our enemies will
be able to find us."
"It is good," declared the Minneconjoux.
They picketed the ponies in the bottom of the ravine, and then most of
the war party crawled up the steep bank to watch the plain. It was
almost dark, and they wondered why Feather Dog and Proud Hawk had failed
to join them. They looked anxiously toward the east in the hope of
seeing the scouts. Then they suddenly heard a chorus of piercing yells
and whoops far across the plain and they looked toward the sounds. The
noise seemed to come from the vicinity of the ridge, and some distance
to the southward.
"Perhaps our enemies have crossed the ridge; we must watch sharp," Sun
Bird cautioned them.
The light was almost gone, and it was difficult to see far across the
plain. The wild commotion continued, however, and, guided by the sounds,
the Sioux strained their eyes in an attempt to learn the cause of the
disturbance. Then some of them discovered what appeared to be a company
of horsemen racing along parallel with the ridge.
"It is the war party!" they cried. "It must be the Blackfeet. They are
riding this way!"
"See, see, some one is chasing them!" said Sitting Eagle.
They made out another company of riders who were apparently pursuing the
horsemen ahead of them. The discovery filled the Sioux with alarm. It
appeared as if both the Blackfeet and the Crows were racing toward the
ravine. In a few moments, however, darkness closed down and blotted them
from sight. Then the wild tumult suddenly ceased, and the Sioux were
left without a clew to the location of their foes.
"It is bad," Sun Bird declared, uneasily. "Those riders were coming this
way. Now we do not know what has become of them. Perhaps they are in
this gully. Perhaps they will come here. We must watch and listen."
The Minneconjoux heard him in silence. They were bewildered by the
sudden turn of fortune which shattered their fancied security and
threatened to expose them to their foes. The possibilities were
alarming. Thoroughly alive to their own peril, they were even more
concerned for the safety of their absent comrades. They wondered what
had happened to White Otter and his companions. Where were Feather Dog
and Proud Hawk? Why had Running Dog failed to warn them of the
approaching war parties? Had those brave scouts been trapped and
destroyed by their foes? The Sioux weakened at the thought.
Sun Bird was particularly disturbed at the possibility of harm having
come to his friend, White Otter, and his brother, Little Raven. The hot
fighting blood surged to his brain as he pictured his tribesmen in the
hands of his foes. He soon dismissed that possibility, however, for he
knew that neither White Otter nor Lean Wolf would ever permit
themselves to be taken alive. The thought suggested the still more
alarming possibility that they had been killed. Sun Bird, however,
refused even to consider it.
"No, my friends, I do not believe anything bad has happened to those
great scouts," he told his companions. "We will wait for them. They will
come."
He had barely finished speaking when one of the Sioux ponies whinnied
softly, and a moment afterward they heard a pony scramble up the side of
the ravine a short distance to the eastward, and gallop off across the
plain.
"Perhaps it is one of our friends," Sun Bird whispered, hopefully.
He crawled to the plain, and imitated the bark of the little gray fox.
The Sioux listened anxiously. Many moments passed. There was no
response. Then Sun Bird again sounded the familiar signal. Still there
was no reply. The Sioux became suspicious. They feared that a hostile
scout had blundered upon their hiding place. Sun Bird, however, felt
more hopeful. He knew the wariness of the Dacotah scouts, and he still
hoped that the mysterious rider was one of his friends. He repeated the
sharp, quick bark of the little gray fox, and waited eagerly for a
reply. This time he got it. It came from the direction where he had
heard the hoofbeats of the retreating pony.
"It is good," said Sun Bird. "That rider is a friend."
A few moments later they heard ponies approaching the ravine. Determined
to be prepared for an emergency, the Sioux lay along the top of the
ravine, with arrows fitted to their bows, ready to repulse an attack.
The precaution proved to be unnecessary, however, as the riders were
Feather Dog and Proud Hawk.
"My brothers, you have come--it is good," said Sun Bird.
The scouts who had returned from the eastward said that they had seen
nothing of their foes, although they felt quite sure that they had heard
several ponies pass them in the darkness. They knew nothing of the
thrilling chase which their companions had witnessed from the ravine,
and were much interested in the recital.
"Did you see anything of White Otter?" Sun Bird inquired, eagerly.
"No, we did not see any one," replied Feather Dog.
Sun Bird appeared serious. The continued absence of White Otter and his
companions worried him. He began to fear that they really had met with
some misfortune. The idea startled him.
At that moment some of the Minneconjoux declared that they heard some
one approaching the ravine. Sun Bird held his breath to listen, and his
heart filled with hope. Perhaps White Otter and Little Raven had come.
The possibility thrilled him. He waited in trying suspense for the
signal which would verify his hopes.
"Perhaps it is an enemy," suggested a warrior who was lying beside him.
Sun Bird remained silent. For the moment the Blackfeet and the Crows had
been crowded from his mind by the hope of seeing White Otter and Little
Raven. He had entirely forgotten the peril which threatened the Sioux
war party. The warning of his tribesman aroused him to his
responsibility. He was the war leader. It was his duty to think first of
the welfare and safety of the men who had entrusted themselves to his
leadership. He at once dismissed White Otter and Little Raven from his
thoughts, and again became the stern, impassive war leader.
"I do not hear anything," he told the man beside him. "What did you
hear?"
"It sounded like ponies," replied the warrior.
"Were they running?" inquired Sun Bird.
"No, it sounded as if they were standing in one place, and stamping
their feet," declared the Minneconjoux.
They listened a long time, but heard nothing. The warriors who had given
the warning, however, felt certain that they had not been mistaken.
"Perhaps it was Tatanka, the buffalo, or Tatokadan, the antelope," said
Sitting Eagle.
"No, no, it sounded like ponies," declared his friends.
Then as they continued to listen they heard the cry of a prairie wolf,
far to the westward. The weird serenade lasted some moments, and then
all was still. The call had sounded entirely natural, but the Sioux
believed it was a clever imitation by their foes. They wondered if it
had any connection with the sounds which had been heard near the ravine.
They realized that Blackfeet scouts might have followed the stream bed
in search of their foes, and that the wolf call was a signal for them to
return to the war party. The Sioux listened anxiously for the sound of
hoof beats going toward the west. When they failed to hear them they
were completely baffled. Had the sharp-eared warriors who claimed to
have heard the ponies been deceived? It seemed unlikely. Then what had
become of the mysterious riders? The entire Minneconjoux war party was
listening breathlessly, and it seemed impossible for the horsemen to
steal away without being heard. Then a new possibility presented itself.
"Perhaps they are Crows," the Sioux told one another.
The thought threw them into a flurry of excitement. They realized that
if Crow scouts had come that far to the eastward, the entire Crow force
might follow them along the ravine. As a precaution against a sudden
attack, two Sioux scouts moved cautiously along the stream bed on foot
to watch for the approach of enemies. They had barely gone beyond
bowshot, when the Sioux heard the bark of the little gray fox directly
in front of them. It filled them with joy, and they lost little time in
replying.
"Ho, my brothers, we have been waiting out here a long time," said
Running Dog, as he rode into the ravine with Big Crow, his fellow scout.
"Did you see White Otter?" Sun Bird immediately inquired.
"I do not know," replied Running Dog. "We saw three riders racing over
the ridge ahead of the Crows. They were far away. We could not tell
about them. Perhaps they were our brothers."
"What became of them?" Sun Bird asked, eagerly.
"They went that way," said Running Dog, as he pointed toward the east.
"The Crows did not follow them. They came this way. Then the Blackfeet
came after them."
"Did you hear Mayash, the wolf?" inquired Sitting Eagle.
"Yes, we heard his call, but he did not make it," Running Dog told him.
"It was the Blackfeet. I believe the Crows got away from them. Perhaps
they have turned this way. That is why we stayed out there in the
darkness. We did not know who was in this place."
"Did you hear us?" Sun Bird asked, anxiously.
"No, we did not hear you," said Running Dog. "Our ponies stopped and
tried to call, and we knew that some one was in this place."
Running Dog told his tribesmen that he and Big Crow had seen the end of
the fight, and the desperate race between the Crows and the Blackfeet.
When the Crows turned toward the ravine the Sioux scouts had been
greatly alarmed for the safety of the Minneconjoux war party. However,
as they realized that they could not carry a warning to their friends,
they had determined to follow their enemies, and learn the result of
the wild chase across the plain. With the coming of darkness they had
lost sight of both the Crows and the Blackfeet, but they were sure that
both war parties had entered the ravine a considerable distance to the
westward.
"Perhaps the Crows came this way--perhaps they crossed the gully and
went straight ahead," said Running Dog. "Anyway, I believe they fooled
the Blackfeet. We heard the Blackfeet scouts riding near us. I believe
they were trying to find the Crows."
"If the Crows came this way they must be near us," said Sun Bird.
"We did not hear anything----"
Running Dog was interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice from the
darkness.
"Ho, Dacotahs!"
"It is White Otter!" cried Sun Bird.
"Yes, my brother, I am here," replied White Otter, as he suddenly
appeared at the top of the ravine.
The Ogalala was alone and on foot, and Sun Bird feared that he had met
with disaster. He was about to ask for Little Raven, and Lean Wolf, when
White Otter turned toward the plain and called softly. A moment
afterward his companions came forward with the ponies. Their appearance
filled Sun Bird with joy. He found it difficult to conceal the emotion
which welled up in his heart at the safe arrival of his beloved
companions.
"My brothers, you have come--I feel good again," he said feelingly.