REBELLIOUS PONIES
The Minneconjoux were eager to learn how White Otter had been able to
get so near them without being heard. They were equally curious to know
how he had located them.
"I will tell you about it," said White Otter. "We were over there on
that ridge watching the fight. Then the Crows ran away. They came right
toward us. We rode away ahead of them. When it got dark we met some
riders. Then we turned this way. We heard some one riding past us. Then
we came on. We went over there near where the Blackfeet are, when we
heard Running Dog and Big Crow. We did not know them. They were coming
this way. We followed them. Then they stopped. We waited. Then we heard
the call of the little gray fox. That made us feel good. But we were not
sure about it. Then we heard those riders come into the gully. Then I
crawled up to find out about it. That is how we found you."
"White Otter, you are a great warrior," Sun Bird declared,
enthusiastically.
Then as the war party was complete he called a council of war to decide
what should be done. The Sioux were agreed that the wisest plan would be
to remain where they were until daylight.
"It is the best thing to do," said Sun Bird. "We know that the Crows and
the Blackfeet are somewhere along this gully. It would be foolish to
move toward them. When it gets light we will try to find out where they
are."
He posted scouts in and about the ravine to watch for the approach of
foes, while the war party lay down to sleep. There was no water, and
both the Sioux and their ponies suffered from thirst. The ponies were
particularly restless, and spent most of the night pawing the dry earth
in the bottom of the ravine. However, Dancing Rabbit assured his
companions that there was a good pool a half day's journey to the
westward, and Sitting Eagle confirmed his words.
"Perhaps the Blackfeet are at that place," suggested Sun Bird.
The night passed without incident, and at the first hint of dawn the
scouts hurried in from the plain. They said that they had neither seen
nor heard anything of their enemies. It seemed, therefore, that either
the Crows and the Blackfeet had continued their mad race through the
night, or else both had hidden themselves to wait for daylight.
"Perhaps the Crows got away and the Blackfeet have gone back to their
village," suggested one of the Minneconjoux.
His companions had serious doubts of it. As soon as it was light enough
to see across the plain, they crawled up the side of the ravine and
looked anxiously for signs of their foes. As they were nowhere in sight,
the Minneconjoux began to hope that the cheerful prophecy of their
comrade was correct. Still, they feared it would be dangerous to rely
upon it.
"We must be cautious," said Lean Wolf. "There are some good hiding
places over there. Perhaps the Blackfeet are waiting for the Crows to
show themselves."
There were a number of scattered stands of cottonwoods dotting the plain
to the westward, and the Sioux realized that one of them might shelter
their foes. They were particularly suspicious of the little grove which
Dancing Rabbit pointed out as the spot which sheltered the pool.
"We must watch that place," declared White Otter.
"Yes, we will stay here and watch," said Sun Bird. "If our enemies are
near us, pretty soon we will see their scouts."
As time passed, and they saw nothing to indicate that either the Crows
or the Blackfeet were anywhere in the vicinity, the Sioux began to
discuss the advisability of moving cautiously along the bottom of the
ravine. The ponies were growing frantic from thirst and were raising
considerable dust by their wild pawing in the stream bed. Some were
beginning to snort and whinny, and the Sioux feared that the
unmanageable little beasts might betray them to their foes. Then, too,
their own throats were parched and aching, and they were eager to reach
the little pool as soon as possible.
"We will go," Sun Bird said, finally.
They believed that it would be folly to expose scouts upon the open
plain, and they determined to keep to the shelter of the ravine until
they were opposite the grove which sheltered the pool. The ponies
appeared to understand that they were moving toward water, and the Sioux
found it almost impossible to hold them in control. For some moments the
fractious little beasts created the wildest sort of disorder, and the
Minneconjoux looked anxiously upon the heavy dust cloud that rose above
the ravine.
"It is bad," Sun Bird declared, uneasily, as he watched White Otter
struggling to subdue the hot-tempered piebald.
When the ponies had finally been brought under subjection, several
warriors who rode quieter horses dismounted and crawled to the top of
the ravine to search the plain. A heavy pall of dust hung over them, and
they wondered if it had been seen by their foes. The latter, however,
were nowhere in sight, and the Sioux knew that unless they were watching
from one of the groves they must have ridden from the locality.
"We saw no one," said the scouts when they overtook their companions.
"It must be that our enemies went away while it was dark," said a young
warrior named Painted Bird.
The Sioux, however, were suspicious. They determined to take nothing for
granted. As they approached the first of the little groves they sent
scouts along the ravine ahead of the war party to watch the plain and
guard against blundering into their foes. They were riding at a fast
pace, and they realized that they would arrive opposite the pool before
the day was half gone.
"It is bad," said White Otter. "We cannot go to that place until it
grows dark. If we get near it, it will be hard to hold the ponies."
"It is true," agreed Sun Bird. "I am thinking about it."
He had planned to move along the ravine until he was opposite the pool,
and then wait until he could send scouts to reconnoiter the grove under
cover of the night. He, too, realized, however, that it might be
impossible to control the ponies once they got that near to the water.
The riders were already having considerable difficulty in restraining
them, and Sun Bird feared that at any moment they might stampede and
dash wildly up the side of the ravine.
"We are raising a great dust," Lean Wolf said, soberly. "If our enemies
are watching they must see it."
"Yes, yes, it is bad," Sun Bird replied, impatiently. "We must stop."
He galloped to the head of the company and called upon the Minneconjoux
to halt. Many of them found difficulty in obeying the command. The
fiery, half-wild ponies had apparently scented the water and it seemed
to have driven them mad. In spite of their expert horsemanship the
Sioux were unable to control them. Although by sheer strength and skill
they finally brought them to a stop, they found it impossible to quiet
them. Crazed with their desire for water, the frantic beasts plunged and
reared and kicked and squealed and raised such a wild commotion that the
Sioux were thrown into a panic. They were certain that if enemies were
lurking at the pool they must surely have seen the dust and heard the
noise created by the unmanageable ponies.
"It is useless to wait here," said some of the more impulsive warriors.
"We may as well go ahead and see what comes of it."
"No, that would be foolish," declared Sun Bird. "If the Blackfeet are
hiding in that place they will see the dust. Perhaps they cannot hear
the noise. Anyway, if we stay in this gully they will not know who we
are. They must send scouts over here to find out about us. They will not
do that until it gets dark. Then it will be easy to fool them."
"Those are good words," White Otter agreed, heartily.
"Yes, that is the way I feel about it," declared Lean Wolf.
"It is the only thing to do," Sitting Eagle cried, angrily. "Are we
like the women who are afraid of the war ponies! Are we like old men who
have no strength in their arms? Does a Dacotah run to his enemy for
water when he is thirsty? Come, my brothers, we are Dacotahs. We are
men. Hold those horses. Throw them down. Kill them if you cannot
overcome them. It is better to go against our enemies on foot than to
let those foolish ponies carry us to our deaths. Sun Bird is a good war
leader. You have heard his words. They are good. We will listen. We will
stay here until it is safe to go ahead."
The words of the famous Minneconjoux scout created a deep impression
upon his comrades. He was a man whose daring achievements made him the
idol of his people, and his counsel was seldom disputed. His daring
challenge to their ability and manhood instantly roused the fighting
blood of the Sioux, and they immediately accepted the task of bringing
the fractious ponies under subjection. It was not easy, but the
Minneconjoux were on their mettle, and, as White Otter had already won
control over the piebald, they persevered until the ponies were finally
quieted.
Order having been restored, many of the Sioux crept up the side of the
ravine to watch the distant stand of cottonwoods which they hoped to
reach at dark. They were suffering keenly from thirst, which had been
greatly aggravated by their desperate struggle with the ponies. Some of
them chewed mouthfuls of grass in an attempt to suck moisture into their
burning throats. Others placed small pebbles beneath their tongues to
increase the flow of saliva. All of them, however, bore their discomfort
without complaint. It was a common occurrence for a warrior to endure
both hunger and thirst, and they had been trained from infancy to suffer
in silence.
"See, the day is passing," Sun Bird said, cheerfully, as the sun sank
slowly toward the west. "Pretty soon we will be under those trees,
drinking that water."
"It is good," the Minneconjoux murmured, thickly.
Although they watched closely until the grove finally faded from sight
in the evening shadows, they saw nothing of their foes. They were quite
convinced that the Crows had eluded the Blackfeet, and that the latter
had gone to their village to boast of their victory.
"We will go," Sun Bird said, as darkness at last fell upon the plain.
They moved eagerly along the ravine, and once more the parched ponies
tried to bolt from the control of their riders. The latter were still
smarting from the rebuke of Sitting Eagle, and they soon brought the
unruly little beasts under subjection. However, it was impossible to
quiet them. They snorted and squealed and whinnied, and the Sioux
realized that it was hopeless to try to reach the grove without being
heard.
"Well, if our enemies are over there they know that we are coming,"
Sitting Eagle declared, irritably.
"It is true," agreed Sun Bird. "But they do not know who we are. If the
Blackfeet are over there they will take us for Crows. If the Crows are
over there they will take us for Blackfeet. It is good. When we get near
that place we will stop. Then we will send scouts over there to find out
about it. If our enemies are there we will find out who they are. Then
we will run away before they find out about us."
"It is good," said Sitting Eagle.
When they finally came opposite the grove which contained the pool they
again fought the desperate ponies into submission and made heroic
efforts to keep them quiet. Then Sun Bird selected White Otter and
Sitting Eagle to go forward on foot to reconnoiter the cottonwoods.
"Those great scouts will find out about it," he boasted, as the two
famous Dacotahs slipped away as noiselessly as shadows.
It seemed a long time to the anxious Sioux before White Otter finally
returned and said that the grove was free from foes. The announcement
filled them with joy. Throwing caution to the winds, they rode out of
the ravine and raced recklessly toward the cottonwoods. Once at the pool
it was impossible to restrain the ponies, and the riders were forced to
wait until the frenzied animals had satisfied their thirst. Then the
Sioux plunged their feverish faces into the roily water and drank as
eagerly as the ponies.
"Ah," Sun Bird sighed, contentedly, as he finally rose to his feet.
Having drunk their fill, the ponies became quiet and turned to graze
upon the scant growth of grass about the pool. The Sioux, however,
remained alert. Their noisy arrival at the pool had made them uneasy.
They had vague, disturbing premonitions of danger, and they feared to
linger in the grove.
"If our enemies come and surround this place it will be hard to get
away," Sun Bird said, anxiously. "Come, we will go."
At that moment one of the ponies whinnied, and the Sioux were astounded
to hear it answered from the plain. Then they heard a horse galloping
toward the west. They turned to one another in alarm.
"Our enemies have caught us!" they cried.
"Wait," White Otter counseled, calmly. "I believe that rider is a scout.
Perhaps he is alone. We will listen. If he is with a war party then we
will hear signals. If he keeps quiet there is nothing to fear."
"It is good," agreed the Minneconjoux.
They listened in tense silence. Then, as the moments passed and they
heard nothing to suggest the approach of their foes, they felt
considerably relieved. Still they were somewhat fearful about leaving
the timber. They realized that either the Crows or the Blackfeet might
have surrounded the grove and sent the scout forward as a decoy to lure
them upon the open plain.
"Well, my brothers, that rider knows that some one is at this pool,"
declared Sun Bird. "If he is a scout he will tell his people about it. I
believe if we wait here something bad will come of it. If we go away our
enemies will not know that the Dacotahs were here. If we expect to get
to the great Blackfeet camp we must not let our enemies know about us."
The Sioux instantly saw the wisdom of his words and agreed that it
would be safer to abandon the grove and continue toward the mountains.
Dancing Rabbit told them that if they continued to ride through the
night, daylight would find them close upon the foothills.
"It is good--we will go," said Sun Bird.
They left the grove and moved slowly across the plain in the direction
of the ravine. The ponies were quiet and docile, and it seemed as if the
clever little beasts were attempting to make amends for the anxiety and
effort they had caused their riders a short time before. As the war
party drew near the ravine Sun Bird ordered a halt while he sent scouts
forward to reconnoiter. They soon returned and declared that the way was
clear.