7 The Trap

The new start was made the next morning, Capa’s shoulder now being well on the way to recovery, and further delay being a waste of time. The forest into which they entered was unlike those they had left. It had the aspects of a vast northern jungle. The trees were large, but the soil was so deep and black that the undergrowth was astonishing in its extent and thickness. They made their way in the usual single file through a vast and intricate tangle of vines, bushes and creeping briars. The air was heavy with the odor of bloom, and they wondered at and admired the extraordinary display of vegetable and arboreal life, but neither Roka nor Pehansan trusted it. They knew that the great animals seeking their lives would find splendid ambush in these green depths. While the young warriors rejoiced at what they saw the two older men were wary and apprehensive.

A harsh scream startled them, but they laughed at themselves when they saw its cause. A huge lynx sat on the bough of a dead tree, spat at them and gave violent tongue to its hate.

“See, Inmu,” said Hoton. “It is your brother, as it bears the same name that you do, but it does not like you. It screams and snarls because another Inmu has come into the forest.”

“No, it does not like me,” said Inmu, “and I know what it is saying to us.”

“What, Inmu?”

“It says: ‘I scream and snarl and spit at you because I know I am safe. The wise Roka will not let you send an arrow at me. I am safe in the tree, and I show my contempt for you. I will not fight you myself, as I am something of a coward, but the great bear, the cunning wolf, and the sly panther are awaiting you in the thick forest. I will sit in a tree and scream my loudest when they attack you.’ That, Hoton, is what the lynx is saying to us.”

“Just like a cowardly animal. You, O, Inmu, are named for the Lynx because you are the exact opposite. The lynx makes a loud noise. You make little. The lynx is no warrior at all, but you are a great one.”

The lynx continued to scream and squall, but they walked past him unnoticing, their attention now being devoted to choosing a path through the dense thickets. Will knew that the heavy vegetation was produced by a large rainfall. It was probable that the clouds passing over the lower mountains near the Pacific coast broke against those farther east and produced an uncommon and frequent precipitation, so creating this great northern jungle in which they found the traveling very hard.

Every one of the warriors glanced from time to time at the spreading branches overhead, expecting, at any moment, to see a great panther crouched there. It was just such a place as would suit the tawny creatures best for an ambush, but they saw none. They saw instead, through the dense tangle of foliage, a darkening sky and heard the ominous roll of thunder in the south. It was evident that they were threatened with a spring storm, and Roka, the wise, not willing to have his men soaked with rain, put them all to work with their tomahawks building a brush shelter as fast as possible.

Their task was completed before sunset, and soon afterward the storm, after a tremendous display of thunder and lightning, broke upon them in a deluge. A part of it beat through the shelter, but with their blankets they were able to protect themselves and, eating cold food, they remained there all night. Will awoke several hours after the dark came, and he noticed that the rain had ceased. He could hear it no longer swishing among the trees, but he heard instead the sound of padded feet and heavy breathing. Inmu was lying next to him, and, as he moved a little, Will divined that he was awake.

“Did you hear?” he whispered.

“Yes, Waditaka,” the young Sioux whispered back. “The great bears are walking about our house and are wondering what manner of creatures are inside.”

“Do you think they will attack us?”

“No, they are merely curious. If we do not stir they will soon go away.”

As Inmu had predicted, the shuffling of vast feet and the heavy breathing ceased before long, but neither Will nor Inmu went to sleep again just yet. In a half hour they heard another and lighter tread, and they detected a strong, cat-like odor.

“The great panther, nay, two of them,” whispered Inmu. “They, too, are merely scouting.”

Will quivered a little. It was hard to lie still when huge and ferocious beasts were separated from him by only a thin brush wall that a single stroke of a great paw could rend from top to bottom. They, too, went away and the strong odor was replaced by the breath of the pure air. Then they heard a single tread, very soft, but suggesting an animal large and cruel.

“The king wolf,” whispered Inmu. “The others came by chance, but he has followed us. He is counting us now.”

“Counting us! What do you mean?”

“He is smelling us out to see if we are all here. If anyone is missing he might cut him off in the forest. Now he knows that none is absent and he is going away. I do not think, Waditaka, that we will have any more visitors tonight.”

“Unless it’s the birds. Such a forest as this should be full of immense eagles and owls.”

Will was right, as within a few minutes they heard the flapping of heavy wings overhead, but he felt no quiver now, as he knew that beak and talon could not penetrate the brush roof. But he had received new proof that the great beasts were tenacious foes of the band, and perhaps he dreaded the huge and cunning wolf most of them all. The brain in the head of the king wolf seemed to him almost human, and much more cruel.

The day came without rain, but lowering and soggy, and reluctantly leaving the brush shelter, they pressed on through the dripping forest. About noon another heavy rain came up so suddenly that they did not have time to prepare for it, and they suffered a thorough wetting. When the rain passed the wise Roka, always with an eye to the comfort of his men, decided to build a fire, a difficult task in such a sodden wilderness, but they were master builders of fires.

A spot was selected and the young warriors went in search of wood. Tarinca bent beneath a great oak to pick up a fallen bough, and a huge, tawny body shooting down struck him squarely upon the back, pinning him to the earth. The devout Tarinca would have perished then and there, but Pehansan, who was standing not far away, saw the yellow flash in the air and the fall of Tarinca. Fortunately his bow was strung, and in a second he had fitted an arrow, letting it fly at the throat of the great panther.

There was another yellow flash in the air when the beast, leaving Tarinca, sprang at Pehansan. The tall warrior was aiming a second arrow, when the panther launched itself. He attempted to leap aside, but was not wholly successful. He evaded claws and fangs, but the great body, striking him upon the shoulder, hurled him heavily to the earth. Will, who was standing next, did not have bow or arrow in hand, but he snatched from his belt the loaded revolver, which he had not used hitherto on the journey. Driven by the desperate need, he put the muzzle of the weapon almost at the yellow brute’s ear, and sent three bullets crashing into his brain.

The panther dropped dead almost at Will’s feet, and he was fully as large as the first one they had slain. Pehansan and Tarinca arose, but the younger man struggled up with difficulty, the blood pouring from his back, where the claws of the beast had struck deep. Roka and Pehansan at once cleansed the wounds thoroughly and then bound them up. The others meanwhile built the fire, and they made it a big one, both for the sake of comfort and for protection from the wild beasts.

“I feared the stroke of the panther in so deep a forest,” said Roka, “but we guarded against it the best we could. Nobody is to blame.”

The roaring fire and plenty of food cheered them greatly, but in the night Tarinca grew feverish and by morning he was in delirium, with his wounds much swollen. Once more they were forced to stop, as they never dreamed of deserting a warrior, and Roka and Pehansan, who were skilled in Dakota surgery, bathed the wounds anew, searching the forest near by for herbs with which they could make poultices. But they went together, with strung bows and they never went far.

The poultices drew the fever from the hurts and rapidly reduced the swelling. In a day and night Tarinca was conscious, though weak, but it would be several days before he was fit to travel. Meanwhile they must do the best they could in the deep forest, where they were in continual danger of ambush by the fierce carnivora. They soon had proof that the peril was imminent, as Tatokadan was attacked by three wolves almost within the limits of the camp itself, and, before the others could come to his rescue and drive them off, he was bitten in the leg. Although it did not happen to be a deep wound, they applied to it all they knew of surgery, as there was usually much poison in a wolf’s fangs. Tatokadan had a high fever for two or three days, but he did not become unconscious. Then, as with Tarinca, his hardy life and iron health prevailed. The impurities conveyed from the teeth of the wolf were ejected from his blood and the hurt healed rapidly and thoroughly.

But they were compelled to remain a week in the great jungle, and they were far from happy there. It reeked with damp, and they kept a big fire burning continually, as much to drive away miasma, as to protect themselves from wild animals. They had evidence every night that the fierce beasts were still watching them. In the darkness the pad of feet was heard again and again, and very near, and the fluttering of heavy wings in the branches overhead made them draw closer to the flames.

Roka became anxious. He had no words of blame for the two young warriors who had been hurt, as the fault had not been theirs, but he saw the gloom of the black forest and its many unseen dangers was settling down upon them. The Dakota, strong in the beliefs of their fathers, were sure now that the evil spirits were triumphant for the time, and that they were in great danger. The wise leader felt that they must give a demonstration of power against their foes, and he talked with Pehansan and Will—he had much respect for the clearness and strength of Will’s mind. So, they arranged to teach the wild animals a lesson.

They proceeded as if their foes had human intelligence, which, in truth, the Dakota believed. A large piece of deer meat was left outside the camp, just beyond the circle of the firelight. It was not put down carefully, but dropped on the ground, as if it had been abandoned or lost, but the warriors marked its position well. Then after supper six went to sleep, leaving Roka, Pehansan, Will and Inmu awake. But the watching four counterfeited sleep, lying in their robes, but with their strung bows and arrows on the ground in front of them.

Roka had said it was the wolves that would come for the treasure trove, left casually just beyond the camp’s edge, because they were more watchful than the other animals and their scent perhaps was keener, and Will was quite confident that the wise leader had predicted aright. He hoped so, and he hoped, too, that the king wolf might be among those that came. Lying almost flat he edged gently forward until his ear touched the ground instead of the robe. The earth is a splendid conductor of sound and he believed he could hear at a great distance the tread of any approaching animal.

The time was very long, but he had learned much about patience from the Dakota, and he practiced it well. The slight shifting of his fingers from time to time along his bow was his only sign of eagerness. But after the real night came, and the darkness moved up like a circular wall about the fire, his ear told him that the woods about them were well peopled. The forest creatures had not gone to bed. Either they were kept awake by nocturnal habits or by curiosity concerning the bipeds who had invaded their domain.

He heard very light feet, not much more than the fall of leaves, and he was quite sure it was the tread of the large northern hare. The light feet came close and then they retreated, as if curiosity had been amply satisfied. A moment later he heard a swish of wings and a faint squeak. One hare was gone and he pitied the poor creature. A huge owl had swooped down and had carried it away in its beak and talons. A terrible price to pay for curiosity!

There was another tread as light as that of the hare, but more cautious, withdrawing a little over and over, but always coming on again. The fox, the smaller cousin of the wolf! Will was quite sure he would not fall a victim to the owl. His curiosity might be as great as that of the hare, but he would keep under cover beneath a veil of the thicket, where beaks and claws could not reach him. The fox came quite close. He must have divined that he was too small for the arrows of the Sioux, as he made a complete circle of the fire, and then retreated, deliberately but always under cover, into the depths of the forest. A huge and hungry owl hovered overhead, but the wise fox was as safe as if steel bars stood between him and the winged creature that craved his flesh.

A heavier step, and a rustling among the bushes came next It was the snarling lynx, not snarling now, but filled with hate at these intruders upon the wilderness. A great bird, red of eye and steel of beak and claw, circled above it, but the lynx showed formidable teeth of its own and the bird, thinking better of its enterprise, flew away. Then the lynx, evil of heart and hot with rage, because it did not dare to attack the men by the fire, stalked sullenly into the forest.

Will heard the retreating footsteps of the lynx, but he was waiting all the while for another tread. The lynx might have taken the deer meat, though it was not bold enough to come so near, but the wolves would dare anything that would not bring them quite into range of the firelight. Another half hour passed, and he heard nothing from the earth, though there was a continuous rustling in the branches, which he was quite sure was made by huge owls.

At last he heard the tread which he knew instinctively to be that of Xunktokeca, very light, very cautious, advancing a little, retreating a little, circling to the right, then to the left, but always advancing, though ever so slowly. He surmised that the wolves were about four in number, and Inmu nodded confirmation to his questioning whisper. They were drawn, despite all their prudence, by the flesh of the deer. The savory odor, telling of physical delight to be won, had reached them afar, and now they were near enough to know that its source was just beyond the firelight, where cunning and wise wolves might steal it away, and yet incur no danger.

He who was at that moment Waditaka, the Dakota, rather than Will Clarke, the white lad, smiled to himself at that wavering but none the less determined approach. It was quite obvious that, however much they veered about, they would come to the place where the deer meat lay. That and that alone was their magnet. Gradually the course of the wolves became more direct, and, after a while, it bore straight upon the coveted venison. Roka raised himself softly upon his elbow, and then into a sitting posture.

“Now, my children,” he said, “when you see me bend my bow do you likewise. When I let fly my arrow do you the same, and aim at the portion of the deer. Shoot thrice each. There will be no time for more, but it will be strange if some of our thirty arrows are not buried deep in the target.”

A low growl came from the bushes. Inmu, who understood the language of the beasts so well, knew that it was a note of satisfaction from the wolves, who were now at the food. The powerful hands of Roka bent his bow, and the hands of nine others, also powerful, bent their bows in unison with his. Swiftly and with certainty they shot, and the thirty arrows struck so close together that the head of a small drum could have contained them all.

A terrific growling and snarling came from the bushes. An immense wolf, transfixed by two arrows, maddened by pain and fury, leaped into the light, rolled over, rolled into the fire and then rolled out again, to be despatched by the knife of Pehansan. In the bushes there was wild rushing about, and then the sound of running feet. The warriors laughed. They were all wild men, Waditaka too, and they had outwitted the wisest and most cunning of all animals.

“Now we will see if our meat is untouched,” said Roka, taking a torch from the fire. “It was precious food that we put there, and although we were willing for the wolves to come we were not willing for them to eat what we left in the bushes.”

They found the venison just as it had been, and, to their great delight, they saw another huge wolf lying dead beside it, a random arrow in his heart, his nose not six inches from the savory flesh. Hoton lifted up his voice and chanted:

“Truly I have won another great victory! Speedily did I avenge the wound that Tatokadan received! The wolf is great in wisdom and the wiles of the forest! For ages he has been learning, but I, Hoton, am wiser and more cunning than he! Lying by the fire in warmth and safety I have lured him within range of my arrow, and I have slain him.”

“But it is my arrow that is in his heart,” said Inmu. “Behold my mark upon it beside the feathers!”

“Truly it is your arrow, Inmu, but it was my wisdom and my mind that directed it. It was as really my shot as if it had been sent from my bow instead of yours.”

“The credit is to us all, because we all shot together,” said Roka, who had a very warm place in his heart for Hoton, the valiant boaster. “We will recover the arrows that found no living mark, and I think our enemies have received a lesson that will keep them farther from our campfire.”

They found all the arrows except one, which they knew to be carried away in the body of a wolf, and returned to the fire, rejoicing over their triumph.

“We did better than I had hoped,” said Roka. “To slay two wolves by shooting in the dark was the greatest of fortune. Surely our shafts were winged by Manitou himself. Now Xunktokeca has learned his lesson, and will not prowl within arrow shot of our camp. You can sleep well now, my children. Pehansan and I will watch the rest of the night.”

Will lay down in his robe, but he put his ear to the bare earth again. Although he listened with great intentness he heard nothing. Neither the hares nor the fox, nor the lynx, nor anything else stirred in the great forest. There was no fluttering in the boughs above them. The great owls and whatever other night birds of prey had been there were gone away. It seemed that the fate of the wolves was a warning to all the smaller people of the wilderness. For that night, at least, man had triumphed completely, and Will, feeling intense satisfaction, soon fell asleep.

They had further proof the next day that the lesson was exemplary. Careful scouting showed that all the fierce carnivora had gone much farther away, and, as long as they remained in their present camp, they were not molested again. The hurts of the young warriors healed finally, and they pressed on anew toward the high mountains that loomed dimly in the east. Yet the great wilderness grew more matted and more nearly impenetrable than ever. The quantity of shrubs and briars and vines was amazing. At times they were compelled to cut a path with their tomahawks, but the thickets offered compensations, as they contained an abundance of spring berries of which they ate freely.

On the third day of their renewed march they came to a river, swollen greatly by spring floods, and melting snow on the mountains. Men less hardy would have turned back, but Roka, after a careful examination, chose a point that he considered best for the passage, and they made ready, putting, as usual, all their weapons, clothes and supplies in packs which they expected to carry on their heads while swimming.

Yet the river might have daunted even that chosen band. The wide current was swift, it carried much fallen timber, and despite the spring warmth in the air they knew that the stream, fed by snows, was almost as cold as ice. Roka gave strict orders that any swimmer who was about to be overcome by chill or cramp, or who was in danger of being swept away, must cry aloud at once for help, because to perish, like a stoic, would merely weaken the band. Then the ten let themselves into the stream, and took a diagonal course, going partly with the current.

Will shivered as the cold water enveloped his body, but powerful exercise soon drove away most of the chill. He had to swim with all his strength, as the current tugged at him with many hands, but he saw that he was doing as well as the others. Roka was on the right of the line, Will was next to him and Inmu was next to Will. The leader bore steadily farther and farther down stream, yielding like a wise man to the great drive of the waters, and avoiding the mass of fallen timber which was now coming in large quantities. Roka, turning his head a little, said to Will:

“Beware of the tree trunks, Waditaka. They are floating swiftly, and it seems almost as if they were alive and were seeking to crush us. A blow from a great log in this swift water is as dangerous as the bite of a wolf.”

A tree, borne by some malicious current, came in a slanting course across the river, and drove directly at their line. In the minds of the Dakota it was impelled by the evil spirits of the air, and was sent by them to destroy. A shout from Roka and their line parted, five beating back up the stream and the other five going more swiftly down it. The jagged tree went through the breach without touching a warrior on either side, and then the line closed up again in triumph.

Roka, looking at the tree that had missed its mark, laughed in contempt. The Dakota, like the Iroquois, not only filled the air with spirits, but incarnated the trees, in truth, nearly all inanimate objects. This was an evil tree that had struck at them, but the blow had fallen on nothing. Will shared their beliefs, for the time at least, and he echoed the laugh of his leader. They were now near the center of the stream and the current seemed to increase in power. It pulled at his feet and all his body, and the weight of his pack on his head made the fight with it hard and dangerous. Roka, sheering still farther to the right, now went almost with the current, and the others followed, the task becoming easier for the while, as the stream itself now bore them on. Yet they were coming but little nearer the eastern shore, and they could easily stay too long in the icy current.

Roka presently sheered in again toward the desired bank, and Will and the whole line promptly and gladly followed him, though they saw ahead masses of driftwood through which they must pass. Nevertheless they swam boldly, expecting to dodge past the dangerous obstructions. But these, too, were possessed by the evil spirits, and in a moment or two the Dakota found themselves surrounded by logs, boughs and great masses of heavy weeds torn from the soft banks by the flooded waters. They might have dived under some of these, but the packs on their heads precluded such tactics.

“Beware, Waditaka,” said Roka, as he swept away with one hand a mass of brush that threatened Will’s head, turning aside to do so. But as he turned back a heavy log struck him on the temple. Will, uttering a cry of dismay, seized him instinctively with one hand and clutched the log with the other. Roka was unconscious, and hung heavily on Will’s arm, but the water sustained him partially, and, the lad with all the power of his other arm, clung to the log, holding both the leader’s head and his own and the precious packs above the stream.

But while the log kept them from sinking, the evil spirit in it nevertheless was disposed to do all the harm it could. It floated into the swiftest portion of the river, rocked dangerously back and forth, and then shot downward with the stream at a great rate. Will’s arm nearly broke with the strain, but he hung on to the log and to Roka, shouting meanwhile for help. All the warriors swam at once in pursuit, but the floating driftwood, which was coming thickly, interfered with them.

Will tried to climb upon the log, but its rolling kept him from doing so, and from fear of losing his hold on Roka he stopped the effort. Then he shut his teeth, prayed to the good spirits and held firm almost by will alone. His whole body seemed to have become numb. He was not conscious of cold or pain, but his will to save Roka grew stronger than ever.

He heard a shout and Pehansan, seizing the other arm of Roka, grasped the log, which he managed to steady. Hoton came next, then all of them, and in a few more minutes they arrived at the eastern shore, where they carried Roka up the low bank and opening his pack wrapped him hastily in his accustomed clothing. When they were dressing themselves, wet though they were, the leader revived and stood up, his eye clear and his figure erect again.

“I thank you, Waditaka,” he said. “You have saved my life. It was your quick mind and strong arm that kept me in this world. I shall repay you some day.”

Will was deeply gratified.

“I only did what I should have done,” he replied. “Any of the warriors in my place would have done the same.”

But Will knew that he now had a powerful friend in Roka, who, as leader of the band, was master of life and death, and, since no harm was in the final outcome, he was not sorry the accident had occurred.

They built a fire as quickly as they could, all helping in the task, and, taking off their clothes again, let the grateful heat soak into their bodies, until all danger of illness from cold had passed. Then they considered the further prosecution of their journey. Roka thought another day or two would take them out of the black forest, beyond which they might find a second region of little prairies, but ultimately they must cross very high mountains before they reached the great buffalo plains for which they were looking. The lofty ridges and peaks were an indisputable fact, as they saw them much more clearly now, their white crests showing in a serrated line against the sky.

“I think,” said Roka, “that when we reach the other side of the mountains we will be on the great plains which run up from the Sioux country. I have heard from the old men that the plains go north in Canada hundreds and hundreds of miles, and that in the far north there are many great, cold lakes, some of them a week or two weeks’ march in length. The buffalo is as plentiful on those plains as he has ever been with us.”

“And perhaps,” said Pehansan, “when we cross the high mountains the wild animals will cease to seek us.”

“Maybe so,” said Roka, “but then we will have to meet the Indians who hunt on those plains. They will regard us as enemies because we are strangers, and we shall have to fight. It is because red man fights red man that the white man has been able to advance over the plains.”

Will walked to the edge of the firelight and took a long look at the white crests. He was not able to calculate the distance, but he knew that they were yet far off. They seemed, however, to nod to him, to beckon him on, and the lure was strong. It was the greatest ambition of his life just then to cross those mountains with his brave comrades. It seemed to him that he had been with them an age, and he had got into the habit of looking upon Roka as the best of men. He was seeking incessantly to excel in all the things in which the grave and stern leader was superior. His mind ran back over many incidents and then to his capture by the Sioux.

He thrust his hand into a small inside pocket of his stout deerskin tunic and drew out a parchment folded tightly. It was the map of the lost mine that his father had discovered, and opening it he looked at it, at first without full realization. Then his old comrades, brave and sympathetic too, came back with a rush. He wondered where they were, Boyd, the guide, Bent, the valiant Little Giant, and Brady, the whimsical and valiant fur hunter. He had no doubt they were still among the living. Such men as they were not made to perish until they had attained fullness of years. Perhaps, giving him up for dead, they had gone on, and found the mine. Well, if it was so, it was all right. They were his heirs, and just then he thought little of money. But he had an intuitive feeling then, and not for the first time, that he would see his three white comrades again.

He refolded the map and put it back carefully in the little pocket. His absorption in the present returned. Once more he was Waditaka, the young Sioux, a member of Roka’s great exploring band, and the problems of the band were his. He returned to the fire, where the warriors, in the fashion of Indians after great exertion, were giving themselves up to complete rest.

“What did you see, Waditaka?” asked Hoton.

“Only the far mountains,” replied Will, not mentioning the look he had taken into the past.

“Waditaka was a brave man today,” said Hoton, “and he deserved the praise the wise Roka gave him. He did almost as well as I would have done had I been in his place.”

“What more could you have done, Hoton?” asked the pious Tarinca.

“I would have swum alone with Roka to the land. It would not have been necessary for me to hold on to a tree. But Waditaka’s credit is as great as would have been mine. His strength is not equal to mine, and perhaps he is not quite so quick with eye and hand as I am.”

“When we meet our next bear, Hoton,” said Will, “I will shoot more arrows into him in a certain time than you can. I lay you a wager of a beaver skin on it.”

“I will not lay a wager with you, Waditaka,” said Hoton, grandly, “because I do not wish to rob you. It is the way of the very young to act rashly, and I will save you your beaver skin, because I am wiser than you are, and I do not wish to take anything from you so easily.”

“Thank you, Hoton,” laughed Will. “But we may not meet any more of the great bears.”

“I think we will,” said Hoton, looking at the far, white mountains with the eye of a prophet. “The monster bears love the high rocks, and they will be waiting there among the narrow passes for us.”

“Our arrows will be ready for them,” said the brave Inmu.

They came the next day to one of the little lakes, so numerous in the far northwest of North America, a deep, cool, blue bowl set in the green wilderness. The forest did not come down to the edge and the sward extended for some width all about it, a fact that gave them keen joy, as they were, for a time, out of the dense thickets which had produced so much hardship, gloom and dangers. The young warriors, when they came into the open space and saw the blue sky clear above them, looked at Roka.

“Yes, my children,” he said, “we will stay here a day or two and drive away the shadows in which the evil spirits have clothed us. We will catch fish in the lake, set traps for small game, and while Pehansan and I talk over grave matters the rest of you may bathe in the waters.”

“But Waditaka should see that no wolf is here, watching him and keeping him from returning to the land,” said Hoton, “because there is no island in this lake, and so no tree into which he can climb.”

“But the wolf didn’t get me, and he won’t,” said Will. “Come on, Hoton, you vain boaster, and I’ll teach you how to swim!”

The eight young warriors were soon in the waters, which were not too cold for such hardy bodies as theirs, and, all fine swimmers, they splashed and ducked one another like so many little boys. Will did now know it, but while he had taken much from the Sioux, these members of Roka’s band had also learned something from him. His had been a silent influence, but it had been pervasive, nevertheless. They had unconsciously imitated the gentleness and mercy that were inherent in his educated white blood. So, while they played together, their pranks were not cruel, and they never involved any danger.

When they came out they were glowing with physical buoyancy, and, running up and down the beach until they were dry, they resumed their clothing. Then the usual fire was kindled and they cooked their food. While they ate they saw they were not going to lack for supplies. Fish leaping up showed themselves in silver streaks just above the surface of the lake, and then splashed as they fell back. Now and then a huge bird of prey darted down and carried off a large fish in its talons. Flocks of wild geese and wild ducks of many kinds appeared, and they seemed tame and unwary enough to swim directly into the snares the Sioux meant to set. It had all the aspects of a place very pleasant to wild men.

“Are you not glad I brought you to this lake, Waditaka?” said Hoton.

“How did you know it was here, Hoton?” asked Will.

“I smelled the water two or three miles back.”

“Come, Hoton! That’s one of your big ones. You don’t smell pure, fresh water like this.”

“You must speak only for yourself, Waditaka. Your nostrils are not my nostrils. Many warriors cannot smell water where I can. The buffalo smells water afar on the prairie. The warrior’s pony smells it, too, and I knew that the lake was here one, two hours before we reached it. I am a great warrior, Waditaka, not because I am so brave, for all of you are almost as brave as I am, but because I have so much wisdom, and I see, hear and smell so well.”

“When we go up into the mountains, where the great bears are waiting for us,” said Will, “we will send Hoton two, three miles ahead to smell them out.”

“And I will go,” said Hoton, more gravely than ever. “After I have slain more than half of them with my single arm, then I will come back, bring up the rest of you and let you share in what is left of the glory.”

Thus spoke Hoton, the boaster, but a warrior of warriors, nevertheless.

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