Little Bear was out of the tepee the next morning before the sun had
started up the eastern sky. Early as he was, Great Bear was already
broiling buffalo steaks over a low fire.
“You are early this morning, Grandfather,” Little Bear greeted him.
“It seemed the Great Spirit was trying to warn me,” Great Bear
explained. “He wouldn’t let me sleep. I feel there is danger.”
Little Bear had no thought of laughing at his grandfather. Many times
Grandfather had thought the Great Spirit was trying to warn him of
danger, and danger had appeared soon afterwards. No, if Great Bear was
afraid of danger, danger must be near.
[Illustration]
“Bring me a horse,” Great Bear ordered. “I’ll make a scouting trip
before the others are ready to break camp.”
“Have our hunters decided to return to the main camp?” Little Bear
asked.
“It is time for Old-Man-of-the-North to send snow,” Great Bear answered.
“We will join the other Sioux and move with them to the winter camp.”
Little Bear opened his mouth to make a request, but thought better of it
and remained silent. Grandfather noticed his hesitation.
“Bring your horse, too.” He smiled. “You may as well learn about
scouting. Besides, you were a great help yesterday.”
Little Bear looked at the wound on the side of Great Bear’s head. Great
Bear had removed the bandage. The wound had healed remarkably overnight
and now seemed only a deep scratch.
“Your wound is healing well,” Little Bear said.
“It was just a scratch.” Great Bear snorted. “Off with you.”
Little Bear didn’t want Grandfather to change his mind about the
scouting trip. He turned and hurried away towards the meadow. As usual,
when he came within sight of the horses, Little Bear slowed to a walk.
As he neared the herd, he gave that low whistle.
He knew at once something was wrong. He saw his own horse lift its head
and look towards him. He repeated the whistle, still looking carefully
at the herd. He was sure some of the horses were gone. He gave a gasp of
dismay. Flying Arrow’s roan colt was gone. Impatiently he whistled
again. His horse left the herd and trotted towards him. As he was
waiting for his own horse, Little Bear saw the roan colt come out of the
brush to the west and join the rest of the herd. At least it wasn’t
gone.
He mounted his horse and rode into the herd. He had been right. Some of
the horses were gone. Grandfather’s best buffalo horse, the black one,
wasn’t there. Flying Arrow’s Blazed Face and some of the other horses
were missing, too. He turned his horse and rode around the herd to the
place where he had seen the colt coming out of the underbrush. There he
found tracks leading from the meadow.
Little Bear was careful to keep his horse away from the trail the other
horses had left. If the horses had been stolen, he wanted to leave all
possible signs for the trackers to read. He followed the trail some
distance, but he didn’t find the missing horses. He pulled his horse to
a stop and sat motionless, trying to decide what to do. If the horses
had merely wandered from the herd, the sooner he hunted for them, the
easier it would be to find them. But it didn’t seem likely that a few of
the horses had wandered off and the others remained. Far more likely the
missing ones had been stolen. He should notify Great Bear and the other
warriors at once.
He swung his horse around and rode back to the herd. It would save time
if he brought the horses into camp for the warriors. He drove most of
the herd ahead of him into camp. Grandfather and several other warriors
heard him coming. They were waiting for him beside Great Bear’s tepee.
“Some of our horses were stolen during the night,” Little Bear reported.
“The Pawnees wouldn’t dare,” Red Cloud growled. “The horses have strayed
away.”
“I hunted for them,” Little Bear explained. “Their trail showed they had
gone fast. If they had strayed, they would have stopped often to graze.”
“The Pawnees had their lesson yesterday,” Red Cloud insisted. “They
wouldn’t dare come back that close to our camp.”
“Others besides Pawnees like Sioux ponies,” Great Bear observed.
The warriors looked questioningly at Great Bear.
“Crows steal Sioux horses, too,” he explained.
Flying Arrow nodded excitedly. “Let’s follow their trail and get our
horses back,” he exclaimed.
“It may not be so easy,” Great Bear warned. “Whoever stole our horses
has a long start. Perhaps he was careful to leave a poor trail. Little
Bear, take us to the trail.”
Little Bear led the way back to the place where he had found the trail.
The other warriors waited while Great Bear got down and examined the
tracks. He studied them carefully. At last he turned to the other
warriors.
“It was a Crow,” he told them, “and only one. He got our horses soon
after our camp went to sleep. He has almost a sun’s start on us, and you
may be sure he will try to hide his trail as soon as he is away from our
camp.”
“We must follow at once,” Flying Arrow insisted. “We won’t let him steal
our horses.”
“Some of us must stay and guard the meat,” Red Cloud objected. “The
chiefs will be expecting us to bring it to the main camp.”
“The chiefs will be angry if we delay the tribe’s start to winter
camping grounds,” Limping Fox warned. “It will not be long until
Old-Man-of-the-North sends snow flying.”
“Red Cloud and Limping Fox have spoken wisely,” Great Bear agreed. “We
must take our meat to the main tribe at once, but I will not lose my
horses to a thieving Crow. While the rest of you return to camp, I will
go after the horses.”
“You should not go alone,” Flying Arrow protested. “I will go with you.”
“The chiefs put you in charge of this hunting party,” Great Bear
reminded him. “You must return with it.”
“That is true,” Flying Arrow admitted. “Still, you should not go alone.”
“I will go with Grandfather,” Little Bear offered.
“Why of course,” Great Bear exclaimed. “I should have thought of that.
Little Bear has proved himself dependable.”
None of the warriors offered a protest. If any of them thought a boy
would be small help on so dangerous an errand, they didn’t say so. The
party rode back into camp where Great Bear busied himself gathering the
things they would take with them. When he had finished, there were only
two small bundles.
“We can travel faster if we travel light,” he explained. “We will find
our food as we need it.”
Despite their haste, the sun was almost overhead when they reached the
trail again. Great Bear took the lead and Little Bear followed behind.
They went rapidly, as whoever had stolen the horses had made no attempt
to hide his trail. They had not gone far before Little Bear realized the
trail was leading straight towards Buffalo Trap Canyon. He could see
Grandfather was troubled because the trail was running so straight and
was so well marked.
When they came to the stream that ran through the valley in front of the
entrance to Buffalo Trap Canyon, Little Bear saw why Grandfather had
been troubled by the plain trail. The trail led straight across the
stream into the place where the grass had been burned off. Here it
became a maze of criss-crossing tracks. Great Bear dismounted and
carefully studied the marks. Little Bear jumped from his horse and
looked, too. The tracks completely puzzled him.
“He led the horses in and out of the stream so that we wouldn’t know
whether to look upstream or downstream for his trail,” Great Bear
explained.
He led Little Bear along the trail upstream. There were many places
where the horses had been led into the stream and back out again. They
returned to the stream they had followed and went downstream. It was the
same here. The horses had been led in and out of the water so many times
it was impossible to tell whether they had finally gone upstream or
down.
“He is clever,” Great Bear admitted grudgingly. “We shall have to search
upstream and downstream to find which way he really went.”
Little Bear looked over the valley where yesterday’s fire had burned off
the grass.
“Perhaps it wouldn’t make any difference whether he went upstream or
downstream,” Little Bear suggested. “I think he would circle around and
get on the trail the Pawnees made when they ran yesterday. He would
think we couldn’t find his trail there.”
Great Bear gave him a surprised look.
“Very good,” he praised. “Of course that is what he would do. When we
find the Pawnees’ trail, we shall find his, too.”
Where the fire had burned, it had covered all traces of the Pawnees’
tracks. But Great Bear judged the Pawnees would ride out of the path of
the fire as quickly as possible. He led the way out of that valley and
into the next one. The fire had burned over this one, too, but had not
gone very high on the hills that formed the south boundary of it. Great
Bear led the way in that direction.
Little Bear anxiously watched the sun. It was dropping to the ground
rapidly. It seemed to be trying to hide its light so that they would
have more trouble finding the Crow. From the time he and Great Bear had
started on the trail, he had known they couldn’t find the horses before
night. Still, he had hoped they could at least find the Pawnees’ trail
before darkness fell. Suddenly Great Bear stopped his horse.
“Here is the Pawnee trail,” he pointed out. “The Crow didn’t ride along
it here, but I think you are right. In the morning we shall find his
trail, too.”
They rode across the next ridge of hills and down into another small
valley. Here the grass was tall and a small spring gurgled up. Little
Bear hobbled their horses while Grandfather got out cold meat for their
supper.
“We’ll have no fire tonight,” Grandfather told him.
While they were eating, Grandfather explained to Little Bear that the
Crow warrior must have seen the Sioux escape from the Pawnee trap. The
Crow would know the Sioux would feel safe after the Pawnees had fled. He
would guess they wouldn’t have a guard watching their horses. It would
give him a good chance to make a raid.
“He would go towards the land of the setting sun, wouldn’t he?” Little
Bear asked.
Grandfather nodded.
“He would circle around and get onto the Pawnees’ trail. He would follow
it until he was sure we had given up trailing him. Then he would turn
directly towards the land of the setting sun,” Great Bear judged.
As soon as he had finished eating, Little Bear rolled himself up in his
buffalo robe and quickly fell asleep. He was awakened during the night
by the sounds of the horses moving about. He sat up quickly. Then he
remembered the horses were not used to hobbles. They were making so much
noise because they were moving awkwardly. He rolled himself in his robe
again and fell asleep.
Morning light was showing only faintly in the east when Grandfather
awakened him. Little Bear rolled his robe into a bundle and tied it on
his horse. He accepted the food Grandfather gave him and munched it as
they rode towards the Pawnees’ trail. When they reached the trail,
Grandfather rode to the left of it and motioned for Little Bear to ride
to the right.
[Illustration]
Little Bear would have liked to let his horse go racing along the trail.
He was sure the Crow was speeding away with the stolen horses while they
were following slowly, searching for his trail. But he knew they
couldn’t find the Crow’s trail unless they went slowly. The farther they
rode, the surer Little Bear became that his idea had been wrong. The
Crow wouldn’t have circled that far before getting on the Pawnees’
trail. He looked across at Great Bear. How much farther would
Grandfather ride before he gave up and turned back to search for the
Crow’s trail at the stream?
Then Grandfather called to him softly. “Here’s where he rode into the
Pawnees’ trail.”
Little Bear turned his horse to Grandfather’s side of the trail. The
grass was bent down, and there were plain tracks where the rider had
brought his horses into the trail. Grandfather dismounted and studied
the tracks.
“One horse has a bad stone bruise,” he pointed out. “See how light the
foot print is. That horse is limping.”
Little Bear dismounted and bent over the tracks. He could see that one
hoof had not cut as deeply as the others.
“We should soon catch him,” he exclaimed.
“We have lost much time finding the trail,” Great Bear reminded him. “He
is far ahead and today we must find game. Our food is gone.”
He smiled at Little Bear’s look of disappointment.
“Never fear,” he promised. “We will catch him and get our horses.”