At the first sign of dawn the next morning, Angry Wolf arose. Little
Eagle heard him and immediately crawled out of his own pile of leaves.
Together they went to the herd of horses. As soon as they caught a
horse, Angry Wolf mounted and rode off.
Little Eagle caught another horse. Riding it, he drove the horses
together into a herd. He brought the herd close to camp. While he waited
for Angry Wolf to return, Little Eagle busied himself around the camp.
As the sun climbed above the eastern hills, Little Eagle worried about
Angry Wolf. Angry Wolf had been gone long enough to ride far back on
their trail. Little Eagle tried to check his rising fears by reminding
himself that camping places were far apart. If Angry Wolf rode all the
way back to their last camping place, he would be gone some time yet.
The horses had separated to graze. Little Eagle mounted one of them and
drove them into a herd again. He returned to the campfire to wait as
patiently as he could. All of the time that he waited, he was wishing
that he had taken more lessons from Clawing Bear. The old medicine man
would have known the meaning of the sign he had seen in the fire. If
Clawing Bear had been with them, he could have told them what to do.
Then there would have been no need for Angry Wolf to make that long trip
back down the trail.
When Angry Wolf came into sight, Little Eagle knew at once that the
other boy had exciting news. He was riding his horse as fast as it could
go. Angry Wolf pulled the horse to a stop and jumped off.
“There’s a big war party of Crows back at the last spring we passed,” he
announced.
“They may turn back without coming this far,” Little Eagle suggested.
“Our trail there is old.”
“They’ll come to this stream,” Angry Wolf stated as positively as if he
had heard the Crows planning. “Here they will find the new trail we will
make as we leave.”
Little Eagle saw the wisdom of the other’s words. The Crows knew of this
stream. Probably they had planned to camp here but had been delayed on
the way. If the warrior who had attacked Angry Wolf and him had been
able to return to camp, he had reported to them. If the man hadn’t
returned to camp, the other Crows had found his body by now. Yes, they
would come on.
“We’ll have to leave the horses we have captured,” Angry Wolf said. “We
can’t drive a herd of horses and outrun the Crows. They have swift
horses and strong medicine.”
“We would have powerful medicine if I had studied more with Clawing
Bear,” Little Eagle thought to himself.
Aloud he said, “They may catch us even if we leave the other horses.”
“They may,” Angry Wolf agreed grimly.
Little Eagle looked toward the herd of horses. It had seemed a great
victory when he and Angry Wolf had escaped with them. He remembered how
he and Angry Wolf had wanted to sing the Victory Song. Now the Crows
would get the horses back. It would be a tremendous triumph for them.
Little Eagle had pictured in his own mind how proud he would be to ride
into winter camp with the herd of captured ponies. But it wouldn’t
happen. The Crows were going to win again.
Little Eagle’s face set with determination. He and Angry Wolf could lie
in ambush. They couldn’t defeat the big Crow war party, but they could
make the Crows pay for their victory.
“If the Crows take our scalps, it will make them an even greater
victory,” Angry Wolf said as though he were reading Little Eagle’s
thoughts.
“That is true.” Little Eagle had to agree. “However, if Clawing Bear
were here, he would think of a plan to defeat them.”
“Clawing Bear is a great medicine man,” Angry Wolf acknowledged.
Little Eagle gave a start. It was almost as though Clawing Bear had
whispered in his ear. Sioux medicine was powerful too. There was a way
that might fool the Crows.
“How long will it take the Crows to reach here?” Little Eagle asked.
“They were starting to cook their meal when I saw them,” Angry Wolf
replied. “They will stop to study the place where we were attacked. We
may have until the sun is straight overhead.”
“We must build many fires to make it look as though this is a big Sioux
camp,” Little Eagle explained. “The Crows will turn back if they think
many Sioux are camped here.”
“They’ll see this is no camp when they cross those hills,” Angry Wolf
objected, pointing back to the hills their trail had crossed.
“They’ll see the smoke of the fires before they reach the hills,” Little
Eagle answered. “They won’t cross the hills.”
“The plan might work,” Angry Wolf agreed doubtfully.
They went to work at once. Fires were laid as they would be in a Sioux
camp. As quickly as a pile of wood was ready, one of the boys brought
coals and started it. In a short time they had a score of fires lifting
spirals of smoke into the crisp morning air. When the Crows counted
those spirals of smoke, they surely would turn back. They wouldn’t risk
a battle with a large Sioux war party.
As soon as the fires were started, Little Eagle and Angry Wolf mounted
their horses. Little Eagle signed for Angry Wolf to take the lead. For a
moment he thought the older boy was going to refuse to take the less
dangerous place, but Angry Wolf took his place without protest. He set a
swift pace, and Little Eagle forced the other horses to keep up with
Angry Wolf’s.
Each time they crossed a hill, Little Eagle stopped to look back. Every
time Little Eagle stopped, Angry Wolf turned his head to watch for a
signal. They moved on in this way as the sun crossed the sky and began
to sink in the west.
As he rode across a low hill, Little Eagle caught a glimpse of trees
ahead. These were the first trees he had seen since morning. He knew
that the trees were growing beside a stream. The horses knew it too.
They quickened their pace. Little Eagle pulled his horse to a stop and
took a long look back. There was no sign of pursuing Crows. Evidently
the fires had fooled them and they had turned back.
When Little Eagle turned to look ahead, he smiled to himself. Angry Wolf
was so eager to reach the stream that he wasn’t looking back for a
signal. The smile changed to a look of alarm when he saw riders moving
on the other side of the grove of trees. Somehow the wily Crows must
have slipped around them and were cutting them off. Then Little Eagle
caught sight of other warriors and he gave a triumphant yell. Those
riders weren’t Crows. They were Sioux.
Little Eagle kicked his heels against his horse’s sides and sent it
racing around the herd. Angry Wolf hadn’t heard Little Eagle’s yell. He
looked up in astonishment as Little Eagle raced past. He took a quick
look back, but there was no one chasing Little Eagle. When he looked
ahead again, Angry Wolf saw the Sioux. He sent his horse racing after
Little Eagle’s.
The warriors quickly surrounded the two boys. Little Eagle saw that it
was a hunting party under Chief Happy Otter. There were shouts of
approval from the warriors when they saw the horses the boys had taken.
Little Eagle and Angry Wolf told of the party of Crows that had been
following them. The warriors laughed and shouted when Angry Wolf told of
Little Eagle’s plan to make the Crows think that a large party of Sioux
were near.
“We’re going to try to surprise those Crows,” Happy Otter announced.
“You boys wait here.”
“We could go with you,” Little Eagle suggested. “Our extra horses would
stay here and graze.”
“Spoken like a true Sioux,” Happy Otter praised. “But your horses are
tired. We must travel fast.”
Little Eagle nodded. He and Angry Wolf had pushed their horses hard. If
the Crows had turned back, it would take swift, hard riding to catch
them. It wouldn’t be fair for Angry Wolf and him to slow the Sioux war
party.
As soon as the warriors rode off, Angry Wolf began to cook food for
Little Eagle and himself. Although Angry Wolf seemed to be giving all of
his attention to his task, Little Eagle could see that his friend’s
thoughts were far away. It wasn’t until the meat was cooked that Angry
Wolf spoke of what was in his mind.
“We must take new names,” Angry Wolf said. “We are warriors now. We have
taken horses from the Crows and you have shot two enemies. You may be
made a medicine man. You healed both of our wounds and you made the
plans that allowed us to escape from our enemies.”
Little Eagle gave his friend a startled look. It was true that both of
them were entitled to be called warrior, but would he be made a medicine
man? He had never heard of a boy of his few summers winning that honor.
“Let’s wait until we reach the winter camp,” he suggested.
“It shall be as you say,” Angry Wolf agreed.
While Angry Wolf fixed piles of leaves for their beds, Little Eagle
searched in the grove and the prairie nearby. It was late in the
afternoon when he returned to camp with a few berries and some roots in
his hands.
Angry Wolf would have liked to sit by the fire and talk about their
adventures, but Little Eagle was tired and his wound was beginning to
throb. He crawled into the pile of leaves, where he fell asleep at once.
Little Eagle didn’t awaken in the morning until the sun’s rays were
striking against his eyelids. Angry Wolf was cooking meat over the fire.
He smiled briefly at Little Eagle.
“You are getting lazy,” Angry Wolf said.
Little Eagle gave him an answering smile.
“I’ll work hard when we reach winter camp,” he answered. “There is much
that I want to learn from Clawing Bear.”
Angry Wolf loafed about the camping place while they waited for the
warriors to return. Little Eagle took his cooking pot and put some of
the berries in it. He tended the cooking until it was finished. He
poured the stuff he had cooked into one of the bags he had used for
water. He cooked another bowlful of a mixture of berries and the roots
he had brought into camp. When this was done, he poured it into another
bag.
The sun was going down when the warriors finally returned. They weren’t
driving any Crow ponies and they didn’t have new Crow scalps at their
belts. As soon as the warriors had cared for their horses and started to
cook their meal, they told what they had found. Little Eagle saw the
admiration in their eyes as they talked to Angry Wolf.
“You are almost as wise as a medicine man,” one of the warriors told
Angry Wolf. “Your plan of building those fires completely fooled the
Crows.”
“We read the trail signs,” another warrior explained. “When the Crows
saw the smoke of those fires, they turned and rode away. Truly you are a
wise warrior.”
“The Crows had too much of a start for us to catch them,” another
warrior said.
“All of the praise goes to Little Eagle,” Angry Wolf said, as soon as he
had a chance to speak. “It was Little Eagle who thought of the plans.”
“Clawing Bear will be proud of his pupil,” Happy Otter said. “The whole
winter camp will be proud of both of you. You have won a great victory.”
In the morning Little Eagle and Angry Wolf rode with the warriors toward
the winter camp. For five suns they went on. There had been no more
snow, and most of the first snowfall had melted so the party could go
swiftly. On the sixth morning, scouts brought word of a herd of
buffaloes to the east. Happy Otter decided that the party would kill as
many buffaloes as could be loaded on the extra horses.
While arrangements were being made for the hunt, Little Eagle waited
excitedly. When Happy Otter held out the straws to decide who should
have to stay in camp and tend the horses, Little Eagle was allowed to
draw with the others. He was so proud of having a chance to draw, just
like the warriors, that he was hardly disappointed when he drew one of
the short straws and had to tend horses with Singing Jay.
As the warriors were preparing to ride out on the hunt, Angry Wolf drew
Little Eagle aside.
“I have hunted buffalo and you never have,” Angry Wolf said. “I’ll trade
places with you. I’ll watch the horses while you hunt.”
Little Eagle shook his head.
“I had a chance to draw,” he answered. “I lost.”
It was almost midday when Little Eagle and Singing Jay took the horses
to the hunters. The warriors had killed as many buffaloes as the horses
could carry. As soon as the meat was loaded on the pack horses, the
party started on.
At the end of the second day after the hunt, there was a conference
around the campfire.
“Tomorrow we shall reach the winter camp,” Happy Otter announced. “The
rest of us will ride ahead to prepare a welcome. Later, you two boys
will ride into camp.”
The next morning Little Eagle and Angry Wolf kept their horses in a herd
while the warriors rode out of camp. As soon as the warriors were out of
sight, Little Eagle took the two bags into which he had poured the
juices he had cooked the day he and Angry Wolf had waited for the
warriors to return from their pursuit of the Crows. He found a small
stick and dipped it into one of the bags. With the yellow coloring on
the stick, he painted lines on Angry Wolf’s face. When that was finished
Angry Wolf painted lines on Little Eagle’s face.
“Yellow for happiness,” Angry Wolf exclaimed, looking at the fine horses
they had taken from the Crows.
“And red for victory,” Little Eagle added, as he opened the other bag
and began to put red lines on Angry Wolf’s face beside the yellow ones.
When they started to divide the horses into two groups so that each
could lead his captured ponies into camp, Angry Wolf objected to
dividing them evenly.
“You were the leader,” he told Little Eagle. “If you had not saved my
life, I couldn’t have returned to winter camp at all.”
“Any medicine man would work to save your life,” Little Eagle answered.
“We took the horses together and we’ll divide them equally.”
Before they reached the winter camp, a party of warriors rode out to
meet Angry Wolf and Little Eagle. The warriors surrounded the boys and
chanted the Victory Song. The warriors continued to circle until they
neared the first wigwam in camp. Here the warriors changed positions so
that there were men ahead, at each side, and behind Angry Wolf and
Little Eagle. The warriors conducted the two boys to the council wigwam.
Little Eagle noticed the admiring looks that the boys in the camp were
giving the captured horses.
When the riders dismounted in front of the council wigwam, Little Eagle
turned toward the place where Clawing Bear’s tepee should stand. A few
paces from the tepee, he jumped from his horse. He took the halter ropes
of the three best horses belonging to him and stepped toward the tepee
flap.
“Come in, Little Eagle,” Clawing Bear called.
Little Eagle stepped into the tepee. He held the halter ropes toward
Clawing Bear.
“I am pleased,” Clawing Bear said, as he accepted the ropes.
The medicine man stepped out of the tepee to look at the horses Little
Eagle had given him.
“Those are fine horses,” he said. “It is a great gift.”
Little Eagle was puzzled to see that Clawing Bear looked worried. It was
odd that the medicine man should be worried at the time his pupil had
returned with so great a victory.
“I owe you much,” Little Eagle told him. “I will owe you more when you
have taught me more.”
A sudden smile warmed Clawing Bear’s face.
“I should have known that you are a real medicine man,” he exclaimed.
“You are wise enough to know there is more to be learned.”
Abruptly Clawing Bear turned back into his tepee. A moment later he
returned with a mask fashioned from the head of a buffalo hide. The two
horns had been left on the hide. When it was worn, it looked as though
the horns grew from the medicine man’s head.
“Turn your back to me,” Clawing Bear ordered.
Little Eagle obeyed. Slowly, Clawing Bear lowered the mask over Little
Eagle’s head.
“Soaring Eagle,” Clawing Bear said solemnly. “You are now a member of
the sacred clan of Sioux medicine men.”
Little Eagle gave a gasp of pleasure. Clawing Bear had given him a
medicine-man name, Soaring Eagle. He had really been made a medicine
man. He threw his head back and stood as straight as he could.
“There are many things I must learn before I am worthy to be a medicine
man,” he said, speaking slowly to keep his voice from trembling. “I will
do my best to be worthy.”
“You have learned much,” Clawing Bear answered. “You will learn more.
Come, we must report to the chiefs.”
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