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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Arrows, by William O. Stoddard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Two Arrows
+       A Story of Red and White
+
+Author: William O. Stoddard
+
+Release Date: August 5, 2009 [EBook #29616]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO ARROWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Barbara Kosker, Linda McKeown
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TWO ARROWS
+
+
+
+
+
+HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERIES
+
+NEW LARGE-TYPE EDITION
+
+  TOBY TYLER                            James Otis
+  MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER                  James Otis
+  TIM AND TIP                           James Otis
+  RAISING THE "PEARL"                   James Otis
+  ADVENTURES OF BUFFALO BILL            W. F. Cody
+  DIDDIE, DUMPS AND TOT                 Mrs. L. C. Pyrnelle
+  MUSIC AND MUSICIANS                   Lucy C. Lillie
+  THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB          W. L. Alden
+  THE CRUISE OF THE "GHOST"             W. L. Alden
+  MORAL PIRATES                         W. L. Alden
+  A NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE                 W. L. Alden
+  PRINCE LAZYBONES                      Mrs. W. J. Hays
+  THE FLAMINGO FEATHER                  Kirk Munroe
+  DERRICK STERLING                      Kirk Munroe
+  CHRYSTAL, JACK & CO.                  Kirk Munroe
+  WAKULLA                               Kirk Munroe
+  THE ICE QUEEN                         Ernest Ingersoll
+  THE RED MUSTANG                       W. O. Stoddard
+  THE TALKING LEAVES                    W. O. Stoddard
+  TWO ARROWS                            W. O. Stoddard
+
+  HARPER & BROTHERS
+  PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: TWO ARROWS EXPLORES THE RUINS]
+
+
+
+
+  TWO ARROWS
+
+  A STORY OF RED AND WHITE
+
+
+
+
+  BY
+
+  WILLIAM O. STODDARD
+
+  Author of "THE TALKING LEAVES"
+
+
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  NEW YORK AND LONDON
+  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY HARPER & BROTHERS
+  COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD
+  F.-Y.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+
+       I. THE HUNGRY CAMP                           1
+
+      II. A YOUNG HERO                              9
+
+     III. A BRAVE NAME                             17
+
+      IV. THE MINING EXPEDITION                    24
+
+       V. A VERY OLD TRAIL                         32
+
+      VI. A THIRSTY MARCH                          40
+
+     VII. THE GREAT CAÑON                          48
+
+    VIII. WATER! WATER!                            56
+
+      IX. INTO A NEW WORLD                         64
+
+       X. SILE'S POCKET                            71
+
+      XI. A TRAPPED BOY                            80
+
+     XII. THE ERRAND OF ONE-EYE                    88
+
+    XIII. GREAT SCOUTING                           96
+
+     XIV. A WRESTLING MATCH                       103
+
+      XV. A GREAT CAPTAIN                         111
+
+     XVI. VISITING                                117
+
+    XVII. MORE FUN                                126
+
+   XVIII. TWO WAR-PARTIES                         136
+
+     XIX. WONDERFUL FISHING                       146
+
+      XX. A FULL CORRAL                           157
+
+     XXI. THE GOLD MINE                           166
+
+    XXII. A NEW SETTLEMENT                        174
+
+   XXIII. DANGER                                  182
+
+    XXIV. SILE'S VICTORY                          191
+
+     XXV. A MIDNIGHT MARCH                        199
+
+    XXVI. PREPARING FOR AN ATTACK                 207
+
+   XXVII. FROM BOW TO RIFLE                       216
+
+  XXVIII. THE APACHES HAVE COME                   224
+
+    XXIX. STIRRING TIMES                          232
+
+     XXX. A DARING RIDE                           239
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  "Two arrows explores the ruins"                     _Frontispiece_
+
+  "Not a boy or girl among them had such a
+  treasure as that mirror"                           _Facing p._ 120
+
+  "The midnight march of the Nez Percés"                "        206
+
+  "His right hand with his palm up to show
+  that he was peaceful"                                 "        230
+
+
+
+
+TWO ARROWS
+
+
+
+
+
+TWO ARROWS
+
+A STORY OF RED AND WHITE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HUNGRY CAMP
+
+
+The mountain countries of all the earth have always been wonder-lands.
+The oldest and best known of them are to this day full of things that
+nobody has found out. That is the reason why people are always exploring
+them, but they keep their secrets remarkably well, particularly the
+great secret of how they happened to get there in that shape.
+
+The great western mountain country of the United States is made up of
+range after range of wonderful peaks and ridges, and men have peered in
+among them here and there, but for all the peering and searching nothing
+of the wonder to speak of has been rubbed away.
+
+Right in the eastern, edge of one of these mountain ridges, one warm
+September morning, not long ago, a band of Nez Percé Indians were
+encamped. It was in what is commonly called "the Far West," because
+always when you get there the West is as far away as ever. The camp was
+in a sort of nook, and it was not easy to say whether a spur of the
+mountain jutted out into the plain, or whether a spur of the plain made
+a dent in the ragged line of the mountains. More than a dozen "lodges,"
+made of skins upheld by poles, were scattered around on the smoother
+spots, not far from a bubbling spring of water. There were some trees
+and bushes and patches of grass near the spring, but the little brook
+which trickled away from it did not travel a great way into the world,
+from the place where it was born, before it was soaked up and
+disappeared among the sand and gravel. Up and beyond the spring, the
+farther one chose to look, the rockier and the ruggeder everything
+seemed to be.
+
+Take it all together, it was a forlorn looking, hot, dried-up, and
+uncomfortable sort of place. The very lodges themselves, and the human
+beings around them, made it appear pitifully desolate. The spring was
+the only visible thing that seemed to be alive and cheerful and at work.
+
+There were Indians and squaws to be seen, a number of them, and boys and
+girls of all sizes, and some of the squaws carried pappooses, but they
+all looked as if they had given up entirely and did not expect to live
+any longer. Even some of the largest men had an air of not caring much,
+really, whether they lived or not; but that was the only regular and
+dignified way for a Nez Percé or any other Indian warrior to take a
+thing he can't help or is too lazy to fight with. The women showed more
+signs of life than the men, for some of them were moving about among the
+children, and one poor, old, withered, ragged squaw sat in the door of
+her lodge, with her gray hair all down over her face, rocking backward
+and forward, and singing a sort of droning chant.
+
+There was not one quadruped of any kind to be seen in or about that
+camp. Behind this fact was the secret of the whole matter. Those Indians
+were starving! Days and days before that they had been away out upon the
+plains to the eastward, hunting for buffalo. They had not found any, but
+they had found all the grass dry and parched by a long drought, so that
+no buffalo in his senses was likely to be there, and so that their own
+ponies could hardly make a living by picking all night. Then one
+afternoon a great swarm of locusts found where they were and alighted
+upon them just as a westerly wind died out. The locusts remained long
+enough to eat up whatever grass there was left. All through the evening
+the Nez Percés had heard the harsh, tingling hum of those devourers, as
+they argued among themselves whether or not it were best to stay and dig
+for the roots of the grass. The wind came up suddenly and strongly about
+midnight, and the locusts decided to take advantage of it and sail away
+after better grass, but they did not leave any behind them. They set
+out for the nearest white settlements in hope of getting corn and
+apple-tree leaves, and all that sort of thing.
+
+The band of Nez Percés would have moved away the next morning under any
+circumstances, but when morning came they were in a terribly bad
+predicament. Not one of them carried a watch, or he might have known
+that it was about three o'clock, and very dark, when a worse disaster
+than the visit of the locusts took place. By five or six minutes past
+three it was all done completely, and it was the work of a wicked old
+mule.
+
+All but a half a dozen of the ponies and mules of the band had been
+gathered and tethered in what is called a "corral," only that it had no
+fence, at a short distance from the lodges. Nobody dreamed of any danger
+to that corral, and there was none from the outside, even after the boys
+who were set to watch it had curled down and gone to sleep. All the
+danger was inside, and it was also inside of that mule. He was hungry
+and vicious. He had lived in the white "settlements," and knew
+something. He was fastened by a long hide lariat to a peg driven into
+the ground, as were all the others, and he knew that the best place to
+gnaw in two that lariat was close to the peg, where he could get a good
+pull upon it. As soon as he had freed himself he tried the lariat of
+another mule, and found that the peg had been driven into loose earth
+and came right up. That was a scientific discovery, and he tried several
+other pegs. Some came up with more or less hard tugging, and as fast as
+they came up a pony or a mule was free. Then he came to a peg he could
+not pull, and he lost his temper. He squealed, and turned around and
+kicked the pony that belonged to that peg. Then he stood still and
+brayed, as if he were frightened to find himself loose, and that was all
+that was needed.
+
+It was after three o'clock, and in one minute the whole corral was
+kicking and squealing, braying, biting, and getting free, and joining in
+the general opinion that it was time to run away.
+
+That is what the western men call a "stampede," and whenever one occurs
+there is pretty surely a mule or a thief at the bottom of it; but
+sometimes a hail-storm will do as well, or nearly so. By five or six
+minutes past three all of that herd were racing westward, with boys and
+men getting out of breath behind it, and all the squaws in the camp were
+holding hard upon the lariats of the ponies tethered among the lodges.
+When morning came there were hardly ponies enough to "pack" the lodges
+and other baggage and every soul of the band had to carry something as
+they all set off, bright and early, upon the trail of the stampeded
+drove of ponies. Some of the warriors had followed it without any
+stopping for breakfast, and they might have caught up with it, perhaps,
+but for the good generalship of that old mule. He had decided in his own
+mind to trot right along until he came to something to eat and drink,
+and the idea was a persuasive one. All the rest determined to have
+something to eat and drink, and they followed their leader. It was not
+easy for men on foot to catch up with them, and before noon the warriors
+sat down and took a smoke, and held a council as to what it was best to
+do. Before they finished that council the ponies had gained several
+miles more the start of them. The next council the warriors held
+contained but three men, for all the rest had gone back as messengers to
+tell the band that the ponies had not been recovered. By nightfall the
+remaining three had faithfully carried back the same news, and were
+ready for a fresh start.
+
+After that there had been day after day of weary plodding and continual
+disappointment, with the weather growing hotter and the grass drier,
+until the trail they were following brought them to the spring in the
+edge of the mountain range without bringing them to the wicked old mule
+and his followers.
+
+That had not been the whole of the sad history. On the evening before
+the stampede that band of Nez Percés had been well supplied with riding
+ponies and pack-mules, and had also been rich in dogs. No other band of
+their size had more, although their failure to find buffaloes had
+already begun to have its effect upon the number of their barking stock.
+Not a dog had been wasted by feeding him to the other dogs, but the
+human beings had not been allowed to starve, and after the march began
+towards the mountains there was less and less noise in that camp night
+after night.
+
+There was no help for it; the ponies ate the grass up at the spring, and
+then one of them had to be eaten, while the warriors rode all around the
+neighborhood vainly hunting for something better and not so expensive.
+They did secure a few rabbits and sage-hens and one small antelope, but
+all the signs of the times grew blacker and blacker, and it was about as
+well to kill and eat the remaining ponies as to let them die of
+starvation. A sort of apathy seemed to fall upon everybody, old and
+young, and the warriors hardly felt like doing any more hunting. Now at
+last they sat down to starve, without a dog or pony left, and with no
+prospect that game of any kind would come into camp to be killed. It is
+a curious fact, but whole bands of Indians, and sometimes whole tribes,
+get into precisely that sort of scrape almost every year. Now it is one
+band, and now it is another, and there would be vastly more of it if it
+were not for the United States Government.
+
+There was nothing droll, nothing funny, nothing that was not savagely
+sad, about the Nez Percés' camp that September morning. Every member of
+the band, except two, was loafing around the lodges hopelessly and
+helplessly doing nothing, and miserably giving the matter up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A YOUNG HERO
+
+
+Away from the camp a long mile, and down in the edge of the dry, hot,
+desolate plain, there was a wide spread of sage-bushes. They were larger
+than usual, because of having ordinarily a better supply of water sent
+them from the mountains than if they had settled further out. In among
+such growths are apt to be found sage-hens and rabbits, and sometimes
+antelopes, but the warriors had decided that they had hunted out all of
+the game that had been there, and had given the bushes up. Two of the
+members of the band who were not warriors had not arrived at the same
+conclusion, and both of these were among the "sage-brush" that morning.
+The first had been greatly missed among the lodges, and had been much
+hunted for and shouted after, for he was the largest and most
+intelligent dog ever owned by that band. He was also about the ugliest
+ever owned by anybody, and his misfortunes had earned for him the name
+of One-eye. He could see more with the eye he had left--and it was his
+right--than any other animal they had ever had, or than most of the
+warriors. He saw what became of the other dogs, for instance, and at
+once acquired a habit of not coming when an Indian called for him. He
+kept his eye about him all day, and was careful as to where he lay down.
+Just about the time when the ponies began to go into the camp-kettles he
+was a dog hard to find, although he managed to steal pony-bones and
+carry them away into the sage-brush. Perhaps it was for this reason that
+he was in even better condition than common that morning. He had no
+signs of famine about him, and he lay beside what was left of a
+jackass-rabbit, which he had managed to add to his stock of plunder.
+One-eye was a dog of uncommon sagacity; he had taken a look at the camp
+just before sunrise, and had confirmed his convictions that it was a bad
+place for him. He had been to the spring for water, drinking enough to
+last him a good while, and then he had made a race against time for the
+nearest bushes. He lay now with his sharp-pointed, wolfish ears pricked
+forward, listening to the tokens of another presence besides his own.
+
+Somebody else was there, but not in bodily condition to have made much
+of a race after One-eye. It was a well-grown boy of about fifteen years,
+and One-eye at once recognized him as his own particular master, but he
+was a very forlorn-looking boy. He wore no clothing, except the
+deer-skin "clout" that covered him from above his hips to the middle of
+his thighs. He carried a light lance in one hand and a bow in the
+other, and there were arrows in the quiver slung over his shoulder. A
+good butcher-knife hung in its case by the thong around his waist, and
+he was evidently out on a hunting expedition. He was the one being,
+except One-eye, remaining in that band of Nez Percés, with life and
+energy enough to try and do something. He did not look as if he could do
+much. He was the son of the old chief in command of the band, but it was
+two whole days since he had eaten anything, and he had a faded, worn,
+drawn, hungry appearance, until you came to his black, brilliant eyes.
+These had an unusual fire in them, and glanced quickly, restlessly,
+piercingly in all directions. He might have been even good-looking if he
+had been well fed and well dressed, and he was tall and strongly built.
+Just such Indian boys grow up into the chiefs and leaders who make
+themselves famous, and get their exploits into the newspapers, but as
+yet this particular boy had not managed to earn for himself any name at
+all. Every Indian has to do something notable or have something
+memorable occur to him before his tribe gives him the honor of a
+distinguishing name. One-eye knew him, and knew that he was hungry and
+in trouble, but had no name for him except that he suggested a danger of
+the camp-kettle.
+
+There could be no doubt about that boy's pluck and ambition, and he was
+a master for any dog to have been proud of as he resolutely and
+stealthily searched the sage-bushes. He found nothing, up to the moment
+when he came out into a small bit of open space, and then he suddenly
+stopped, for there was something facing him under the opposite bushes.
+
+"Ugh! One-eye."
+
+A low whine replied to him, and a wag of a dog's tail was added, but a
+watch was kept upon any motion he might make with his bow or lance.
+
+"Ugh! no. Not kill him," remarked the boy, after almost a minute of
+profound thinking. "Eat him? No dog then. All old fools. No dog hunt
+with. No pony. Starve. Keep One-eye. Try for rabbits."
+
+He called repeatedly, but his old acquaintance refused to come near him,
+whining a little but receding as the boy advanced.
+
+"Ugh! knows too much."
+
+It was a matter to lessen the value of One-eye that he understood his
+own interests, and his master ceased, wearily, his efforts to entice
+him. He pushed on through the bushes, but now he was instantly aware
+that One-eye was searching them with him, keeping at a safe distance,
+but performing regular hunter's duty. He even scared up a solitary
+sage-hen, but she did not fly within range of bow and arrow. She was an
+encouragement, however, and so were the remains of the rabbit to which
+One-eye managed to pilot the way. They seemed like a promise of better
+things to come, and One-eye stood over them for a moment wagging his
+tail, as much as to say,
+
+"There; take that and let me up!"
+
+The boy picked up the rabbit and said several things to the dog in a
+clear, musical voice. He spoke the guttural, Nez Percé dialect, which is
+one of the most difficult in the world, and One-eye seemed almost to
+understand him--and yet there are white boys of fifteen who stumble
+dreadfully over such easy tongues as Greek and Latin.
+
+The boy and dog seemed to be on better terms after that, and went on
+through the sage-brush towards where a straggling line of mesquite
+scrubs marked the plain. The dog was ranging the bushes right and left,
+while the boy slowly followed the narrow lane of an old, hard-beaten
+"buffalo path," with an arrow on the string, ready for anything that
+might turn up. They were nearly out of the mesquites when One-eye
+uttered a quick, sharp, low-voiced whine, which his master seemed to
+understand. It is not every dog that can whine in the Nez Percé dialect,
+but the boy at once dropped upon his hands and knees and crept silently
+forward. He had been warned that something was the matter, and his
+natural instinct was to hide until he should discover what it might be.
+Again the dog whimpered, and the boy knew that he was hidden ahead and
+beyond him. He crawled out of the trail and made his way under and
+through the bushes. He made no more sound or disturbance than a snake
+would have caused in doing the same thing, and in half a minute more he
+was peering out into the open country.
+
+"Ugh! buffalo!"
+
+His brilliant eyes served him well. Only an Indian or a dog would have
+rightly read the meaning of some very minute variations in the brown
+crest of a roll of the prairie, far away to the eastward. Only the
+keenest vision could have detected the fact that there was a movement in
+the low, dull line of desolation. Back shrank the boy, under the bushes
+at the side of the trail, and One-eye now had enough of restored
+confidence to come and crouch beside him. In a few minutes more the
+spots were noticeably larger, and it was plain that the buffalo were
+approaching and not receding. At another time and under different
+circumstances, even an Indian might have been unwise, and have tried to
+creep out and meet them, but the weakness of semistarvation brought with
+it a most prudent suggestion. It was manifestly better to lie still and
+let them come, so long as they were coming. There was no sort of fatigue
+in such a style of hunting, but there was a vast deal of excitement. It
+was a strain on any nerves, especially hungry ones, to lie still while
+those two great shaggy shapes came slowly out upon the ridge. They did
+not pause for an instant, and there was no grass around them to give
+them an excuse for lingering. They were on their way after some, and
+some water, undoubtedly, and perhaps they knew a reason why there should
+be an ancient buffalo-trail in that direction, trodden by generation
+after generation of their grass-eating race. The boy was a born hunter,
+and knew that he was lurking in the right place, and he drew back
+farther and under deeper and more perfect cover, hardly seeming to
+breathe. One-eye did the same, had almost looked as if he wanted to put
+his paw over his mouth as he panted. On came the two bisons, and it was
+apparent soon that no more were following them.
+
+"Bull--cow," muttered the boy. "Get both. Laugh at old men then. Have
+name!"
+
+His black eyes flashed as he put his best arrow on the string and
+flattened himself upon the dry, hot earth. Nearer and nearer drew the
+gigantic game, and with steady, lumbering pace they followed the old
+trail. It was a breathless piece of business, but it was over at last.
+The bull was in front, and he was a splendid-looking old fellow,
+although somewhat thin in flesh. Neither he nor his companion seemed to
+have smelled or dreamed of danger, and they walked straight into it. The
+moment for action had come, and the boy's body rose a little, with a
+swift, pliant, graceful motion. With all the strength starvation had
+left in him he drew his arrow to the head. In another second it was
+buried to its very feathers in the broad breast of the buffalo bull, and
+the great animal stumbled forward upon his knees, pierced through the
+heart. The young hunter had known well the precise spot to aim at, and
+he had made a perfect shot. The cow halted for a moment, as if in
+amazement, and then charged forward along the trail. That moment had
+given the boy enough time to put another arrow on the string, and as she
+passed him he drove it into her just behind the shoulder, well and
+vigorously. Once more he had given a deadly wound, and now he caught up
+his lance. There was little need of it, but he could not be sure of
+that, and so, as the bull staggered to his feet in his death-struggle,
+he received a terrific thrust in the side and went down again. It was a
+complete victory, so far as the bull was concerned, and One-eye had
+darted away upon the path of the wounded cow.
+
+"Ugh! got both!" exclaimed the boy. "Have name now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A BRAVE NAME
+
+
+One-eye followed the arrow-stricken cow, and he ran well. So did the
+cow, and she did not turn to the right or left from the old buffalo
+trail. There was but one road for either the trail or the cow or the
+dog, for the very formation of the land led them all into the mountains
+through the nook by the spring, and so by and by through the camp of the
+starving Nez Percés. On she went until, right in the middle of the camp
+and among the lodges, she stumbled and fell, and One-eye had her by the
+throat.
+
+It was time for somebody to wake up and do something, and a
+wiry-looking, undersized, lean-ribbed old warrior, with an immense head,
+whose bow and arrows had been hanging near him, at once rushed forward
+and began to make a sort of pin-cushion of that cow. He twanged arrow
+after arrow into her, yelling ferociously, and was just turning away to
+get his lance when a robust squaw, who had not been made very thin even
+by starvation, caught him by the arm, screeching,
+
+"Dead five times! What for kill any more?"
+
+She held up a plump hand as she spoke, and spread her brown fingers
+almost against his nose. There was no denying it, but the victorious
+hunter at once struck an attitude and exclaimed,
+
+"No starve now, Big Tongue!"
+
+He had saved the whole band from ruin and he went on to say as much,
+while the warriors and squaws and smaller Indians crowded around the
+game so wonderfully brought within a few yards of their kettles. It was
+a grand occasion, and the Big Tongue was entitled to the everlasting
+gratitude of his nation quite as much as are a great many white
+statesmen and kings and generals who claim and in a manner get it. All
+went well with him until a gray-headed old warrior, who was examining
+the several arrows projecting from the side of the dead bison, came to
+one over which he paused thoughtfully. Then he raised his head, put his
+hand to his mouth, and sent forth a wild whoop of delight. He drew out
+the arrow with one sharp tug and held it up to the gaze of all.
+
+"Not Big Tongue. Boy!" For he was the father of the young hero who had
+faithfully stood up against hunger and despair and had gone for game to
+the very last. He was a proud old chief and father that day, and all
+that was left for the Big Tongue was to recover his own arrows as fast
+as he could for future use, while the squaws cut up the cow. They did it
+with a haste and skill quite remarkable, considering how nearly dead
+they all were. The prospect of a good dinner seemed to put new life into
+them, and they plied their knives in half a dozen places at the same
+time.
+
+One-eye sat down and howled for a moment, and then started off upon the
+trail by which he had come.
+
+"Boy!" shouted the old chief. "All come. See what."
+
+Several braves and nearly all the other boys, one squaw and four
+half-grown girls at once followed him as he pursued the retreating form
+of One-eye. It was quite a procession, but some of its members staggered
+a little in their walk, and there was no running. Even the excitement of
+the moment could get no more than a rapid stride out of the old chief
+himself. He was well in advance of all others, and at the edge of the
+expanse of sage-brush in which One-eye disappeared he was compelled to
+pause for breath. Before it had fully come to him he needed it for
+another whoop of delight.
+
+Along the path in front of him, erect and proud, but using the shaft of
+his lance as a walking-stick, came his own triumphant boy hunter. Not
+one word did the youngster utter, but he silently turned in his tracks,
+beckoning his father to follow.
+
+It was but a few minutes after that and they stood together in front of
+the dead bull bison. The boy pointed at the arrow almost buried in the
+shaggy chest, and then he sat down; hunger and fatigue and excitement
+had done their work upon him, and he could keep his feet no longer. He
+even permitted One-eye to lick his hands and face in a way no Indian dog
+is in the habit of doing. Other warriors came crowding around the great
+trophy, and the old chief waited while they examined all and made their
+remarks. They were needed as witnesses of the exact state of affairs,
+and they all testified that this arrow, like the other, had been
+wonderfully well driven. The old chief sat down before the bull and
+slowly pulled out the weapon. He looked at it, held it up, streaming
+with the blood of the animal it had brought down, and said:
+
+"Long Bear is a great chief. Great brave. Tell all people the young
+chief Two ARROWS. Boy got a name. Whoop!"
+
+The youngster was on his feet in a moment, and One-eye gave a sharp,
+fierce bark, as if he also was aware that something great had happened
+and that he had a share in it. It was glory enough for one day, and the
+next duty on hand was to repair the damages of their long fasting. Two
+Arrows and his dog walked proudly at the side of the Long Bear as he led
+the way back to the camp. No longer a nameless boy, he was still only in
+his apprenticeship; he was not yet a warrior, although almost to be
+counted as a "brave," as his title indicated. It would yet be a long
+time before he could be permitted to go upon any war-path, however he
+might be assured of a good pony when there should be hunting to be done.
+
+There had been all along an abundance of firewood, of fallen trees and
+dead mesquite-bushes, in the neighborhood of the camp, and there were
+fires burning in front of several lodges before the remainder of the
+good news came in. The cow had been thoroughly cut up, but the stern
+requirements of Indian law in such cases called for the presence of the
+chief and the leading warriors to divide and give out for use. Anything
+like theft or overreaching would have been visited with the sharp wrath
+of some very hungry men. The Big Tongue had seated himself in front of
+the "hump" and some other choice morsels, waiting the expected decision
+that they belonged to him. He also explained to all who could not help
+hearing him how surely that cow could have broken through the camp and
+escaped into the mountains if it had not been for him, until the same
+plump squaw pointed at the hump and ribs before him, remarking,
+cheerfully,
+
+"Go get arrow. Kill him again. Need some more. Boy kill him when he
+stood up."
+
+There was not strength left in the camp for a laugh, but the Big Tongue
+seemed to have wearied of the conversation. He looked wearier afterwards
+when the hump was unanimously assigned to the old chief's own lodge,
+that Two Arrows might eat his share of it. Indian justice is a pretty
+fair article when it can be had at home, not interfered with by any kind
+of white man. The division was made to the entire satisfaction of
+everybody, after all, for the Big Tongue deserved and was awarded due
+credit and pay for his promptness. If the buffalo had not already been
+killed by somebody else, perhaps he might have killed it, and there was
+a good deal in that. He and his family had a very much encouraged and
+cheerful set of brown faces as they gathered around their fire and began
+to broil bits of meat over it.
+
+One fashion was absolutely without an exception, leaving out of the
+question the smaller pappooses: not one man, woman, or child but was
+diligently working away at a slice of raw meat, whatever else they were
+doing or trying to do. It was no time to wait for cookery, and it was
+wonderful what an enlivening effect the raw meat seemed to have.
+
+Indian etiquette required that Two Arrows should sit down before his
+father's lodge and patiently wait until his "token" should be given him.
+His first slice of meat was duly broiled by his mother, and handed him
+by his father, and he ate it in dignified silence. It was the proudest
+hour of his whole life thus far, and he well knew that the story would
+spread through the Nez Percé nation and lead the old men of it to expect
+great things of him: it was a beginning of fame, and it kindled in him
+a tremendous fever for more. His ambition grew and grew as his appetite
+went down, and his strength began to come back to him.
+
+It was a grand feast, and it was not long before there were braves and
+squaws ready to go and cut up the bull and bring every ounce of him to
+camp. Starvation had been defeated, and all that happiness had been
+earned by "Two Arrows."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MINING EXPEDITION
+
+
+The place away out upon the rolling plain, at which the unlucky
+hunting-camp of the Nez Percé band had been pitched when the locusts
+visited them, was occupied again a few days after they left it. The
+new-comers were not Indians of any tribe but genuine white men, with an
+uncommonly good outfit for a small one. They were one of the hundreds of
+mining and exploring expeditions which every year set out for one range
+of mountains or another to try and find what there is in them. They are
+all sure to find a good deal of hard work, privation and danger, and
+some of them discover mines of gold and silver.
+
+This expedition consisted of two very strongly built but not heavy
+wagons, with canvas-covered tilts, and each drawn by four large mules.
+What was in the wagons except the drivers could only be guessed at, but
+riding at the side or ahead or behind them as they came towards the
+camping-place were six men and a boy. There were several spare horses
+and mules, and the whole affair looked as if it had cost a good deal of
+money. It costs a great deal to bring up eight men and a boy so that
+these may be fairly included, but there were wide variations in the
+external garnishing of the riders and drivers.
+
+They had all been guided to that spot, partly by the general aim of
+their undertaking, partly by the trail they were following, and a good
+deal by a tall old fellow with a Roman nose and a long, muddy yellow
+beard, who rode in front upon a raw-boned, Roman-nosed sorrel mare, with
+an uncommon allowance of tail. When they reached that camping-ground it
+was not late in the afternoon, but it was not well to go on past a deep
+pool of water, surrounded by willows and cottonwood-trees, however
+little grass there was to be had in the neighborhood. They had found
+water and grass getting scarcer and scarcer for two or three days, and
+there was quite enough in the look of things to make men thoughtful.
+They knew nothing about the Nez Percés and the grasshoppers and the
+wicked old mule, but the tall man in front only looked around for one
+moment before he exclaimed,
+
+"I'd call it--Been some kind of Injins here lately. No game, I reckon,
+or they'd ha' stayed."
+
+"No kind of game'd stay long in such a burned-up country as this is,"
+added a squarely made, gray-headed man who rode up alongside of him.
+"We've nothing to do but to push on. We must get out of this or we'll
+lose our whole outfit."
+
+"Sure as shootin'! I move we just unhitch long enough for a feed and a
+good drink, and lay in what water we can carry, and go on all night.
+There's a good moon to travel by, and it'll be cooler work for the
+critters."
+
+"It's our best hold. Sile, don't you gallop that horse of yours one rod.
+There's work enough before him. Save him up."
+
+"All right, father. But isn't this the camp? He can rest now."
+
+"No he can't, nor you either. It's an all-night job."
+
+Sile was not gray-headed. He was very nearly red-headed. Still, he
+looked enough like his father in several ways. He was broadly and
+heavily built, strong and hearty, with something in his merry, freckled
+face which seemed to indicate a very good opinion of himself. Boys of
+fourteen, or thereabout, who can ride and shoot, and who have travelled
+a little, are apt to get that kind of expression, and it never tells
+lies about them.
+
+Sile's horse was a roan, and looked like a fast one under a light weight
+like his. Just large enough not to be called "ponyish," and with signs
+of high spirit. The moment the youngster sprang from the saddle and
+began to remove it it became manifest that there was a good
+understanding between horse and boy. Any intelligent animal is inclined
+to make a pet of its master if it has a fair chance.
+
+"Now, Hip, there isn't any grass, but you can make believe. I'll bring a
+nose-bag as soon as you've cooled off and have had a drink of water."
+
+He was as good as his word, and there were oats in the nose-bag when he
+brought it, and Hip shortly left it empty, but in less than two hours
+from that time the two tilted wagons were once more moving steadily
+onward towards the West and the mountains.
+
+There had been a hearty supper cooked and eaten, and there was not a
+human being in the party who seemed much the worse for fatigue. The
+spare horses and mules had taken the places of the first lot in harness,
+and it was plain that there was plenty of working power remaining, but
+there was a sort of serious air about the whole matter. The sun set
+after a while, and still, with occasional brief rests, the expedition
+pushed forward. It was a point to be noted that it travelled about twice
+as fast as the band of Nez Percés had been able to do after they had
+lost their ponies. It was not hampered by any heavily burdened
+foot-passengers. The moon arose, and now Sile was riding on in front
+with the muddy-bearded veteran.
+
+"Pine," said he, "s'pose we don't come to grass and water?"
+
+"Most likely we will before mornin', or before noon anyhow. If we
+don't, we must go on till we do."
+
+"Kill all the mules?"
+
+"They'll all die if we don't, sure's my name's Pine--Yellow Pine."
+
+"They can't stand it--"
+
+"They can stand anything but starvation. Did you ever try giving up
+water?"
+
+"No; did you?"
+
+"Well, I did. I was glad to give up giving it up after a few days. It's
+the queerest feeling you ever had."
+
+"How'd it happen?"
+
+"I don't feel like tellin' about it jest now. There's too good a chance
+for tryin' it again to suit me."
+
+"Is that so? Pine, do you know, I wish you'd tell me how they came to
+call you Yellow Pine."
+
+The fear of either thirst or hunger had plainly not yet fallen upon
+Sile, or he would not have asked that question just then. It sounded so
+much like fourteen years old and recklessness that the great, gaunt man
+turned in his saddle and looked at him.
+
+"I'd call it--Well, now, you're a customer. Some reckon it's my
+complexion, and I am turned kind o' yaller, but it ain't. It's my own
+name."
+
+"How'd you get it, anyway?"
+
+"How? Well, my father was just like me; he was a wise man. He named me
+after his brother, my uncle Ogden, and after Colonel Yell, that was
+killed in the Mexican war. So I'm Yell O. Pine, and nobody but you ever
+cared how it kem so."
+
+Sile was satisfied as to that one point, but there did not seem to be
+anything else on that prairie about which he was satisfied, and at last
+his companion remarked to him,
+
+"Now look here, Sile Parks, you go back and tell the judge, if I've got
+to answer questions for you all night, he'll hev to raise my wages. I'm
+thirsty with it now, and there's no water to spare."
+
+Sile was in no wise disconcerted, but rode back to the main body in
+excellent spirits. It was the first real danger of any sort that the
+expedition had encountered, and there was a keen excitement in it. He
+had read of such things, and now he was in one without the least idea in
+the world but what everything would come out all right, just as it does
+in a novel. Before midnight he had asked every other human being around
+him all the questions he could think of, and had dismounted four times
+to examine the grass at the wayside and see if it were of any better
+quality. Each time he was compelled to mount again and ride on to his
+father, "Chips."
+
+When bunch-grass gets to be so dry that it will crumble in the fingers
+it ceases to be of any use except to carry a prairie-fire in a great
+hurry. It will do that wonderfully, but it will not do to feed animals
+on, and it was needful to have something better.
+
+When a halt was called, at about twelve o'clock, and a rest of two hours
+was decided on, the barrels of water in the wagons were drawn upon for
+only a moderate ration all around, and the animals plainly testified
+their eagerness for more. They were not at all distressed as yet, but
+they would have been if they had done that amount of work under
+sunshine. When the moment for again setting out arrived and the word was
+given, Judge Parks inquired,
+
+"Pine, where is Sile?"
+
+"Where? I'd call it--There he is on his blanket, sound asleep. I'll
+shake him up."
+
+"Do, while I put the saddle on his horse. Guess he's tired a little."
+
+A sharp shake of Sile's shoulder had to be followed by another, and then
+a sleepy voice responded,
+
+"Water? Why, Pine, there's a whole lake of it. Was you ever at sea?"
+
+"Sea be hanged! Git up; it's time to travel."
+
+"Ah, halloo! I'm ready. I dreamed we'd got there. Riding so much makes
+me sleepy."
+
+He was quickly in the saddle again, and they went forward; but there
+were long faces among them at about breakfast-time that morning. They
+were halted by some clumps of sickly willows, and Yellow Pine said,
+mournfully,
+
+"Yer's where the redskins made their next camp. They and their critters
+trod the pool down to nothin' and let the sun in onto it, and it's as
+dry as a bone. We're in for a hard time and no mistake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A VERY OLD TRAIL
+
+
+During all that was left of that happy day in the Nez Percé camp there
+was an immense amount of broiling and boiling done. Whoever left the
+great business of eating enough and went and sat down or lay down got up
+again after a while and did some more remarkable eating. All the life of
+an Indian trains him for that kind of thing, for he goes on in a sort of
+continual vibration from feast to famine.
+
+All the other boys in camp were as hungry as Two Arrows, and as their
+hunger went down their envy of him went up; he had suddenly stepped
+ahead of them and had become an older boy in a moment. It was very much
+as if a boy of his age in the "settlements" had waked up, some fine
+morning, with a pair of mustaches and a military title, uniform and all.
+
+Two Arrows was entitled to strut a little, and so was One-eye, but for
+some reason neither of them was inclined to anything but eating and
+lying down. One-eye may have felt lonely, for he found himself the only
+dog in all that camp, and he knew very well what had become of the dogs
+he used to know: they had gone to the famine, and there had been no
+sort of funeral ceremonies, and now there could be no kind of neighborly
+quarrel over bones any more. There was a reason, why One-eye should
+attach himself more closely than ever to his master and follow his every
+movement. They had killed two buffaloes in company, and there was no
+telling what they might or might not yet do if they kept together.
+
+Two Arrows found the effects of his long fasting rapidly passing away,
+but he was like everybody else and needed a big sleep. One-eye had the
+only eye that did any watching all that night, and nobody but the fat
+squaw was up very early next morning. Her next company was the Big
+Tongue, and he at once began to talk about the game he intended to kill,
+now he had had something to eat. Two Arrows might not have been the next
+riser if it had not been for a friendly tug from One-eye, but the moment
+he was awake he knew that he was hungry again. He was hungry, but he was
+silent, and it was plain that he was thinking about something uncommonly
+interesting. He stood in front of his father's lodge, waiting for the
+breakfast that was now sure to come, when a light hand was laid upon his
+arm and a soft musical voice exclaimed, triumphantly,
+
+"Two Arrows! Name!"
+
+"Ugh," said he. "Na-tee-kah."
+
+He hardly looked around, but the pleasantest face in all that band was
+smiling upon him. It bore a strong resemblance to his own, and belonged
+to an Indian girl a year or so younger than himself. She was well grown,
+slender, and graceful, and had a pair of eyes as brilliant as his, but a
+great deal more gentle and kindly in their expression. They lacked the
+restless, searching, eager look, and his, indeed were quieter than they
+had been the day before.
+
+"Got plenty to eat now," she said. "Not starve to death any more."
+
+"Eat all up," replied he. "Fool! Starve again, pretty soon."
+
+"No, Long Bear and old men say, keep all there is left. Work to-day. Dry
+meat. Go hunting somewhere else. Not stay here."
+
+There was a little more talk that indicated a very fair degree of
+affection between the brother and sister, and then Two Arrows said to
+her,
+
+"Keep tongue very still. Come."
+
+She followed him to the lower edge of the camp, and he silently pointed
+her to the place where the old buffalo trail came in.
+
+"Great many make that. Long time. All know why."
+
+"The cow came in there."
+
+"Ugh! now come."
+
+She followed him now to the upper end of the camp, and he pointed again
+to the trail, deeply and plainly made, going on into the gorges of the
+mountains.
+
+"Buffalo go that way; Two Arrows follow. Say no word. Not find him
+pretty soon."
+
+That was the meaning of all his thoughtfulness. He meant to set off on a
+hunt of his own planning, without asking permission of anybody. Two days
+earlier he would not have dreamed of such a piece of insubordination.
+Now he had won his right to do that very thing, and he meant to take
+advantage of it instantly. All the young ambition in him had been
+stirred to the boiling point, and his only remaining anxiety was to get
+a good supply of provisions and get out of the camp without being seen
+by anybody. He could look out for his weapons, including several of his
+father's best arrows, and Na-tee-kah at once promised to steal for him
+all the meat he wanted. She went right into his plan with the most
+sisterly devotion, and her eyes looked more and more like his when she
+next joined her mother and the other squaws at their camp-fire. There
+was no doubt but what her brother would have his marching rations
+supplied well, and of the best that was to be had.
+
+There was no need for Two Arrows to steal from Long Bear. What between
+pride and buffalo meat the old chief was ready to give or rather lend
+him anything, and he deemed it his heroic son's day to parade and show
+off. He was entitled to do so with the best weapons in his father's
+collection. The day would surely come when he would be allowed to paint
+himself and do a great many other things belonging to full-grown braves
+and warriors. It was even lawful for him to wear a patch or two of paint
+now, and Na-tee-kah helped him to put it on. If he had been a white boy
+with his first standing-collar, he could not have been more particular,
+and every other boy in camp had something to say to the others about the
+fit of that vermilion.
+
+It was a day of drying and smoking meat, and of eating as much as the
+older men permitted, and everybody wore an aspect of extreme good-humor
+except One-eye and his master. The dog and the boy alike kept away from
+the camp-fires and from all grown-up Indians. Towards the middle of the
+afternoon, Na-tee-kah slipped quietly out at the upper end of the camp,
+carrying her own buckskin sack nearly full of something, and nobody
+thought of asking her what there might be in it. She had not been gone
+many minutes before anybody loafing at that end of the camp might have
+seen her brother was following her. He had been standing near the spring
+for some time, in full rig, for the other boys to admire him, and now he
+walked dignifiedly away as if he were weary of being looked at. Half a
+mile farther up the rugged valley he caught up with Na-tee-kah, and she
+returned to camp without her bead-worked sack. There was nothing at all
+noticeable in the whole affair, unless some suspicious person had been
+closely watching them. It was after sunset before there was any special
+inquiry for Two Arrows, and it was dark before Na-tee-kah expressed her
+belief that he had "gone hunt." She replied freely to every question
+asked her, well knowing that there would be no pursuit, but she was more
+than a little relieved when the old chief, instead of getting angry
+about it, swelled up proudly and remarked,
+
+"Two Arrows! young brave. All like father, some day. Kill more buffalo."
+
+Then Na-tee-kah felt courage to speak about the trail and her brother's
+reasoning as to where it might lead to. She had her ears boxed for that,
+as it had a sound of giving advice to her elders, but it was not long
+before her father gravely informed a circle of the warriors and braves
+that the path pointed out by the buffalo cow was the one by which they
+must seek for more like her. It was very easy to convince them that they
+could do nothing upon the dry, sunburnt plains, or by staying to starve
+again in that camp. The objection made by Big Tongue that nobody knew
+where that old trail might carry them was met by Long Bear conclusively.
+He picked up a dry pony-bone that lay on the ground and held it out to
+Big Tongue.
+
+"All other trail go this way. Know all about it. Been there."
+
+It was enough. It was better to follow an unknown trail than to starve,
+and it was not long before it leaked out that Two Arrows was believed to
+have gone ahead of them on that very road.
+
+Precisely how far he had gone nobody had any idea. They would hardly
+have believed if he had sent back word, for he had travelled most
+diligently. There were no longer any traces of starvation about him,
+except that he carried no superfluous weight of flesh. He had load
+enough, what with his provisions and his weapons, but he did not seem to
+mind it. He tramped right along, with a steady, springy step, which told
+a good deal of his desire to get as far away from camp as he could
+before his absence should be discovered.
+
+For a little distance he had found the trail rising gently with the
+land. Then it turned to the left and went up and over a rocky hill, and
+then it turned to the right again, and just about sunset it looked for
+all the world as if it were running right into the side of a great
+precipice of the mountain range. The light of the sinking sun fell
+clearly and brightly upon the grand masses of quartz and granite rocks,
+and showed him the very point where the pathway seemed to end. It looked
+so, but Two Arrows knew that you cannot cut off the end of a buffalo
+path in that way, and he pushed on, every moment finding the way steeper
+and more winding. He could not make any "short cuts" over such ground
+as that, and every Indian boy knows a fact which the white engineers of
+the Pacific Railway found out for themselves--that is, that a herd of
+buffaloes will always find the best passes through mountain ranges, and
+then they will go over them by the best and easiest grades. Only by
+bridging a chasm, or blasting rocks, or by much digging, did the railway
+men ever improve upon the paths pointed out by the bisons.
+
+Two Arrows had carefully marked his point, and just as the last rays of
+daylight were leaving him he sat down to rest in the mouth of what was
+little better than a wide "notch" in the side of the vast barrier.
+
+"Ugh! pass," he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A THIRSTY MARCH
+
+
+That was a hard day's toil for the mining expedition. It was the second
+day of feasting by the Nez Percés upon the game won by Two Arrows, but
+there was no feasting done by Judge Parks and his men. Even Sile had no
+more questions to ask, and at nightfall their scanty supply of water was
+nearly gone. Every old watercourse and even "tow-heads" of dying bushes
+that they came to did but each give them another disappointment. The
+animals were holding out well, with frequent rests, for they had been
+taken care of even at the expense of the human beings.
+
+Just before sunset, as they were plodding wearily along, Yellow Pine
+drew his rein, turned in his saddle, and pointed away across the plain
+in advance and to the right of them, exclaiming,
+
+"Redskins!"
+
+There was no mistake about it. In a few minutes more a pretty long line
+of pony-riders could be seen travelling steadily southward.
+
+"Will they attack us, father?"
+
+"I guess not. We are too strong, even if they were hostile."
+
+"They won't make any muss," said Pine, confidently, as he again rode
+forward. "There's only some two dozen on 'em, and it isn't a good time
+for a fight."
+
+It was evident that the two lines of travel, crossing each other at
+right angles, would bring the white and red men pretty near each other,
+and the latter even went out of their way to have it so. Sile all but
+forgot how thirsty he was when the train approached the straggling array
+of lances, and a bare-headed warrior rode out to meet Yellow Pine. The
+Roman-nosed sorrel mare sniffed at the pony as if she would have
+preferred a bucket of water, and the two riders held out their hands.
+
+"How?" said Pine.
+
+"Ugh! bad. No water. How?"
+
+A significant motion of his hand towards his mouth accompanied the
+response, and Pine made one like it. Then he pointed at the wagons, and
+again towards the west, and made motions as if he were digging. The
+Indian understood, and nodded and pointed at himself:
+
+"Ugh! Kiowa."
+
+He made a motion as if pulling a bow, pointed southward and pretended to
+drink something, but when he turned his finger towards the west he shook
+his head.
+
+"How?" said Pine again, and the two shook hands and all the Kiowas rode
+on as if they were in a hurry.
+
+"That's a pretty bad report," said Pine to Judge Parks, and Sile
+muttered to himself:
+
+"Why, he hardly uttered a word."
+
+"What does he say?" asked his father.
+
+"Worst kind," said Pine. "He says they have been hunting northerly for
+several weeks. Little game, and the drought driving it all away. He
+doubts if we find any water between here and the mountains. Hopes to
+reach it by to-morrow night in the direction he's taking. The rest of
+his band are down there now."
+
+"Did he say all that?" exclaimed Sile in amazement.
+
+"You wasn't a-watchin' of him. I told him what I thought about it and
+what we meant to do. Tell you what, my boy, if you're to meet many
+redskins you've got to learn sign language. It beats words all holler."
+
+"Well, I did see his hands and yours a-going."
+
+"Yes, and his face and mine too, and elbows and legs. It's as easy as
+fallin' off a log when you once get the hang of it."
+
+"What do you think we had better do after that?" asked Judge Parks.
+
+"Read our own signs. Push on for water till we get some. It can't be
+more'n one day, now. I know just about where I am. Risk my life on it."
+
+So they went forward, but that night had to be taken for rest and the
+morning found men and horses in a terrible plight. Not one drop of
+water had they left, and all they had been able to do for the horses and
+mules had been to sponge their parched mouths. They had camped near some
+trees and bushes, as usual, and it was just about daylight that Yellow
+Pine came to wake up his employer.
+
+"Look a' here, jedge. I was too much played out to find it last night,
+but here it is. Come."
+
+"Well, what is it?" asked the judge, a moment later.
+
+Yellow Pine was pointing at a broad, deeply trodden, flinty looking rut
+in the surface of the prairie.
+
+"That's the old bufler path I follered last year, when I went into the
+mountains, or I'm the worst sold man you ever saw. It led me jest to
+where we all want to go, 'zackly as I told you."
+
+"We'd better hitch up and follow it now, then."
+
+"We had. It'll take us west on a bee-line, and it'll go to all the
+chances for water there are."
+
+The buffaloes could safely be trusted for that, and before the sun was
+up the mining party was following the very path which had led the big
+game within reach of Two Arrows and One-eye. It was less than two hours
+afterwards, without anybody to carry a report of it to anybody else,
+that the whole Nez Percé camp disappeared, and all its human occupants
+also took the advice of the buffaloes. It was necessary to carry all the
+meat they had, and all the pappooses, and a number of other things, and
+so it had not been possible to take all the lodges with their
+lodge-poles. Two of the smaller and lighter found bearers, but there
+were not squaws enough for the rest, and a sort of hiding-place was made
+for them among the rocks until they could be sent for. Indians on a
+journey load their ponies first, then their squaws, then the boys, but
+never a "brave" unless it is a matter of life and death. A warrior would
+as soon work for a living as carry a burden. It never takes long to
+break up an Indian hunting-camp, for there are no carpets or stoves or
+beds or pianos, and the band of Long Bear was on its way after Two
+Arrows and his dog in remarkably short order.
+
+Judge Parks and his men and all his outfit would have travelled better
+and more cheerfully if they could have set out from beside a good spring
+of water. As it was, the best they could do was to dream of finding one
+before they should try to sleep again.
+
+"Father," said Sile, at about twelve o'clock, "are we to stop anywhere
+for dinner? I'm getting husky."
+
+"So is everybody. Imitate old Pine; he's chewing something."
+
+"All the men have stopped chewing tobacco; they say it makes 'em
+thirstier."
+
+"Of course it does. Try a chip or a piece of leather or a bit of
+meat--not salt meat."
+
+"There isn't anything else."
+
+"The less we eat the better, till we get something to drink."
+
+"We'll all die, at this rate."
+
+"Stand it through, my boy. I hope Pine is right about his trail and
+where it leads to."
+
+He seemed confident enough about it, at any rate, and he and his
+Roman-nosed mare kept their place steadily at the head of the little
+column. So he was always the first to examine a hole or a hollow and
+look back and shake his head to let the rest know that it contained no
+water.
+
+The sun seemed to shine hotter and hotter, and not a living creature
+made its appearance upon the dry and desolate plain. Away in the western
+horizon, at last, some dim and cloud-like irregularities began to show
+themselves, and Sile urged his weary horse to the side of his father,
+pointing at them.
+
+"Will there be some rain?" he asked, in a dry and husky whisper.
+
+"My poor boy! are you so thirsty as that? Those are the mountains."
+
+Sile's mind distinctly connected the idea of mountains with that of
+water, and he took off his hat and swung it, vainly trying to hurrah.
+
+"They're a long way off yet, but we can get there. Old Pine is right."
+
+It was wonderfully good news, but every man had been allowed to gather
+it for himself. Nobody cared to say an unnecessary word to anybody else.
+It was impossible to tell the horses, and the poor brutes were suffering
+painfully.
+
+"I reckon they'll hold out," said Pine; "but they'll only jest do it.
+We're making the tightest kind of a squeeze."
+
+So they were, and it grew tighter and tighter as they went on. Sile
+managed finally to get up to Yellow Pine in the advance, and whisper,
+
+"Were you ever any thirstier than this in all your life?"
+
+"Yes, sir! This isn't much. Wait till you know yer tongue's a-turnin' to
+a dry sponge and there's coals of fire on the back of yer neck. Keep
+your courage up, my boy."
+
+Sile had done so. His father had said a good deal to him about the pluck
+with which young Indians endured that sort of thing, and he had
+determined to show "Indian blood," as if he had some in him. It was the
+hardest kind of hard work, and it kept him all the while thinking of
+rivers and lakes and ice and even lemonade. At last he saw a sage-hen,
+and he said to Pine,
+
+"Isn't that a sign of water?"
+
+"Them things never drink," said Pine "When you come to eat 'em they need
+to be b'iled twice. They're jest the driest bird there is. There's the
+mountains, though."
+
+"Oh dear me!" groaned Sile. "But they're getting bigger, and perhaps
+we'll reach 'em some time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GREAT CAÑON
+
+
+It was not yet dark when Two Arrows and One-eye halted at the mouth of
+the pass. One-eye looked forward and whined, but his master looked back
+and thought the matter over. He had travelled well and over some pretty
+rough ground, but the trail had been wide and well marked. It was almost
+like a road, so far as room went, but Two Arrows knew nothing of wheels,
+neither did that trail. He was considering the curious fact that not a
+man of his band knew that such a path existed or where it led to. It was
+something to set his ambition on fire only to have discovered and
+followed anything so new and remarkable. It was a deed for an old brave
+rather than for a boy of fifteen. He needed rest, but when he again
+turned and looked into the pass he at once arose and walked on.
+
+"Dark soon. Maybe can't walk then. Do some more before that," said Two
+Arrows.
+
+He was in a spot worth looking at. Some old-time convulsion of nature
+had cleft the mountain barrier at that place so that giant walls of rock
+arose on either side of him for hundreds of feet, almost
+perpendicularly. For some distance ahead the cleft was nearly straight,
+and its gravelly bottom was from ten to thirty yards wide. There were
+not many rocky fragments or bowlders, but it was evident that at some
+seasons of the year torrents of water came pouring through that gorge to
+keep it clean.
+
+"When snow melts," muttered Two Arrows, "pretty bad place."
+
+No doubt, or after any great storm or "cloud-burst" among the peaks
+beyond; but all was dry as a bone now. It was sure to become dark early
+in such a chasm as that, and there was no telling how much need there
+might be for seeing the way. On went the young explorer until he came to
+a point where the chasm suddenly widened. It was a gloomy sort of hollow
+and littered with fragments of trees, drift-wood of old torrents.
+
+"Camp," said Two Arrows to One-eye. "Make fire."
+
+If a dog could use flint and steel, no doubt One-eye would have obeyed;
+as it was, Two Arrows had to attend to that business for himself, and it
+was not long before a great blazing fire of mountain pine was throwing
+flashes of magnificent light upon the mighty precipices in all
+directions. The gray granite stood out like shadows, and the white
+quartz glittered marvellously, but the Nez Percé boy had no time to
+admire them. He had his supper to cook and eat, and he had found some
+water in a hollow of the rocks; no sunshine hot enough to dry it up had
+ever found its way down there. Then drift-wood was gathered to keep some
+sort of a blaze burning all night. There was no danger from human
+enemies in that utter solitude, but there were wild beasts among the
+mountains; night would be their prowling-time, and not one among them
+would venture too near a fire.
+
+Two Arrows was well entitled to a sound sleep, and he had one; when he
+awoke, in the earliest gray of the next morning, the world was in fair
+daylight everywhere outside of that deep crack in the mountains. He ate
+heartily and at once pushed on, determined to have some fresh game
+before night if possible. Such thoughts as he sent back to the Nez Percé
+camp did not include the idea that it was already breaking up to follow
+him; still less did he have any imagination of thirsty white people
+toiling across a waterless plain along that buffalo trail.
+
+He was in no danger of losing the way, for his path was walled in for
+him. Towards midday it ceased to go up, up, up, and the chasm widened
+into a great rocky cañon of wonderful ruggedness and beauty. Two Arrows
+had been among the mountains before, in other ranges, and this seemed to
+him very much like what he might have expected. Now, however, the trail
+turned to the right and picked its way along the steep side of the
+varying slopes. Here it was wider and there it was narrower, until it
+came to a reach of natural roadway that even a bison must have hunted
+for before he found it. Away up it went in zigzags, seeming to take
+skilful advantage of every natural help it came to, and then it shot
+along the mountain-side for a thousand feet, traversing a mere ledge,
+where one formation of rock projected out below another and made a shelf
+for it to go upon. If a man had fallen from that shelf he would have
+gone down a tremendous depth upon jagged rocks at the bottom of the
+cañon.
+
+Two Arrows wasted no time in useless observations or admiration. Where
+herd after herd of wild cattle had tramped before him he could surely
+follow, and at the end of that ledge the road began to descend. The
+descent was gradual, and uncommonly free from breakages. It led, before
+a great while, once more to the bottom of the gorge. Several times Two
+Arrows saw "big-horn" or Rocky Mountain sheep among the rocks above him,
+far out of the reach of his arrows. He felt a longing for antelope
+venison, but there was no use in trying to catch one of those fellows.
+Hotter than anything else he felt the fever and fire of his ambition,
+stirring him to push on and do more than he had ever heard of as done by
+any other boy of his age among all the bands of his nation. It made him
+walk fast and firmly in the bracing mountain air, and he drew his breath
+somewhat quickly at times, when he thought of the wonderful things
+which might be before him. He had no watch, but just as the sun stood
+nearly over his head, or, rather, over the middle of the great gorge, he
+could see that this was beginning to grow broader and not so steep. It
+was promising to lead out into something, and One-eye dashed on ahead as
+if to ascertain what it might be. Two Arrows stood still for a moment
+and watched him, and then he started as if something had pricked him.
+The dog was crouching and creeping as if he had his remaining eye upon
+game of some sort or on danger. His master also crouched and crept,
+slipping forward rapidly from rock to rock. In three minutes more he lay
+beside One-eye, and they both had something worth while to look at. Not
+more than three hundred yards beyond them, on the crest of a rocky ledge
+that came out from the mountain-side like an abutment, stood a big-horn
+antelope. He had seen One-eye and was looking at him. He may have been
+studying whether or not it could be needful for an antelope away up
+where he was to spring away any farther from a dog and an Indian boy. He
+had better have been looking behind him and above him, for his real
+danger was not in the quiver of Two Arrows; it was crouching upon a
+higher fragment of the very ledge which held him, and it was preparing
+for immediate action. It was a cougar, or American panther, of full
+size, on the watch for antelopes, and now had crept almost within
+springing distance. Two Arrows laid his hand upon the head of One-eye to
+keep him silent, and watched breathlessly to see the end of that
+hunting. Nearer and nearer crept the cougar, and still the big-horn was
+absorbed in his study of matters down below. He stepped forward to the
+very edge, and below him the rock came down with a perpendicular face of
+a hundred feet. There was no danger that he would grow dizzy, but even
+the cougar would have done wisely to have ascertained beforehand the
+precise nature of the trap set for him. As it was, he gathered his lithe
+and graceful form for his leap, every muscle quivering with eagerness,
+and he put all his strength into one great, splendid bound. It was as
+sure as a rifle-shot, and it landed him upon the shoulders of the
+big-horn. He had seized his prize, but he had done too much: he had
+fallen with a weight and force which sent him and his antelope
+irresistibly over the rocky edge, and down, down, down they came
+together with a great thud upon the granite below.
+
+"Whoop!" The voice of Two Arrows ringing through the gorge was joined by
+the fierce bark of One-eye as they sprang forward. An older warrior
+might have waited to know the effect of that fall before he interfered
+between a cougar and his game, but Two Arrows did not think of
+hesitation. It was just as well. What between the blow of the cougar and
+the force of the fall, the big-horn was dead. He had somewhat broken the
+effect of the terrible shock upon his enemy by falling under him, but
+even the tough body of the great "cat o' mountain" had not been made for
+such plunges, and he lay on the rock stunned and temporarily disabled.
+Whether it would, after all, have killed him, he was never to know, for,
+just as he was staggering to his feet, a Nez Percé Indian boy charged
+upon him with a long lance, while a large and ambitious dog rushed in
+and seized him by the throat. He was taken at an advantage.
+
+Thrust, thrust, thrust, in fiercely rapid succession, came the keen
+blade of the lance, and One-eye bore down and throttled a brute that
+could have killed four such dogs in anything like a fair fight.
+
+It was tremendous hunting for a boy of fifteen. A cougar to bring down
+his antelope for him, and a precipice to help him kill his cougar, and
+only just enough work for his lance and dog to entitle him to the honor
+of closing, single-handed, with one of the most dangerous of wild
+animals. He had done that very thing, nevertheless, and was entitled to
+all the credit of it. If he had waited to consider the matter, he might
+have had a much harder fight for it. What was more, his energy and
+enterprise and endurance had resulted in bringing him to the right place
+at the right time, instead of somewhere else.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+WATER! WATER!
+
+
+By the time the band of Nez Percés was well on its way, the Big Tongue
+had persuaded himself that the movement was in large part a following of
+his own advice. He felt very free to say as much in the presence of
+several squaws. He even ruffled up and looked large when Na-tee-kah
+laughed and turned away her head. She was too young to say anything in
+reply to a grown-up brave, but just behind her was the fat squaw, and
+her tongue was habitually more at liberty.
+
+"Kill cow same way," said she. "Two Arrows kill him first; then Big
+Tongue. Great brave!"
+
+Big Tongue turned upon her almost fiercely, exclaiming.
+
+"Squaw no talk!"
+
+"Big Tongue keep still. Squaw-boy beat him. Big Tongue shoot arrows into
+dead cow. Ha-ha-pah-no not afraid of squaw-brave."
+
+Ha-ha-pah-no had a tongue and a reputation for it, and the Big Tongue
+did not threaten her any more. Too many squaws and girls joined in the
+laugh against him. Perhaps the fact that Ha-ha-pah-no had a husband
+over six feet high had something to do with it, and that Na-tee-kah was
+the only daughter of Long Bear. It was not safe to quarrel overmuch with
+either of them. They were almost as safe as a large dog is if he is
+known to be quick-tempered. Nobody kicks him.
+
+There was an attempt made at pretty fast travelling, for all the wise
+warriors knew that the tramp across the mountains must be a hard one,
+however good the trail might be, and there were a good many very sober
+faces among them. They had lost their horses and their dogs, and now
+they were leaving behind them a great many other things, and they felt
+as if hard times had come. Starvation is a very severe school-master.
+
+So, for that matter, is thirst, even if provisions are plentiful, and
+Sile Parks learned a great lesson of endurance that day. His father had
+not uttered a word of complaint. Yellow Pine had not murmured, and when
+Sile said to him,
+
+"All the men seem to stand it the very best kind," he had all but
+contemptuously replied,
+
+"Them? Why, every soul on 'em's an old mountain man. Not a greenhorn or
+a tenderfoot among 'em. You won't catch one on 'em a whimperin', not if
+they die for it."
+
+So there were other men besides red Indians who were able to suffer and
+be silent, and Sile tried hard to be that kind of man; but long before
+sunset he felt as if he were choking.
+
+The mountains to the westward loomed up larger and less cloudily as the
+worn-out teams were urged forward. The trail pointed steadily towards
+them, and Yellow Pine unhesitatingly asserted that they were on the
+right track.
+
+"No mistake about it, jedge. It ain't no common cross-prairie trail.
+It's one of their old migration tracks. They've been a treadin' of it
+sence the year one."
+
+The "year one" was a good while ago, but a good deal of hard tramping,
+by many bisons, year after year, had been required to make that ancient
+cattle-path. No grass had grown upon it for nobody could guess how many
+generations, and it was likely to be in the way of ploughing whenever
+that plain should be turned into farming-land.
+
+The greatest care was taken of the animals, those in the traces being
+taken out and changed frequently, and at last all the riders dismounted
+and led their horses. Yellow Pine every now and then went around and
+examined to see how things were looking, and Sile went with him.
+
+"They'll stan' it, every critter of 'em," he said, repeatedly. "They're
+all good stock; good condition. I picked 'em out."
+
+"Your mare is the ugliest in the lot," said Sile, recklessly.
+
+"Best though. Out-walk, out-run, and out-starve any critter in the
+outfit, 'cepting me."
+
+"Can you out-travel a horse?"
+
+"Course I can--most horses. I don't know 'bout the old mare. She can
+out-travel anything. She's good tempered, too; knows just when it's the
+right time to kick and break things. Oh but can't she tear, though!"
+
+He looked at her affectionately, as if her very temper were one of her
+virtues, and she glanced back at him, showing the whites of her eyes in
+a way that indicated anything but a placid mind.
+
+"She's always riley when she doesn't get plenty to drink," said Pine,
+"but she hasn't kicked once in all this. Knows it isn't any fault of
+mine. We'll git there, old lady. Don't you go off the handle."
+
+Another hour and the mountains were very tall, and looked cool, and
+seemed to promise all sorts of things.
+
+"The mines we are after are in among 'em," said Judge Parks to his son.
+"Our trip across the plains has been a quick one; all the quicker for
+this push."
+
+"Hope there'll be a good spring of water right in the edge of them,"
+said Sile, but his voice was huskier than ever and he was struggling
+against a feeling of faintness.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said the judge to himself. "I mustn't say too much to
+him. It's an awful time for me."
+
+So it was, for every now and then the thought would come to him,
+
+"What if, after all, we should not find water when we get there?"
+
+The sun sank lower and lower, and now at last Yellow Pine stood still
+and leaned against his mare, pointing forward.
+
+"Jedge! Jedge--there they are!"
+
+"What is it, Pine?"
+
+The judge could hardly speak, and Sile had such a ringing in his ears
+that he could hardly hear, but Yellow Pine gasped out,
+
+"Them there mesquite scrubs. I was just a beginning to say to myself,
+what if I'd mistook the lay of the land, and there they are. I went
+through 'em last spring was a year ago. It's all right!"
+
+The men tried hard to cheer, but it was of no manner of use. All they
+could do was to plod on and drag their horses after them. The teams in
+the wagons halted again and again, panting and laboring, and every
+slight roll of the plain was a tremendous obstacle, but all was
+overcome, inch by inch.
+
+Yellow Pine had evidently felt his responsibility as guide more deeply
+than he had been willing to confess. He led on now with his mouth open
+and panting, for he had given his own last ration of water to Sile Parks
+and was thirstier than the rest of them. So, for that matter, had Sile's
+father, but some men suffer more from thirst than others and the judge
+had held out remarkably. Just inside the range of mesquites Yellow Pine
+stopped short.
+
+"Bufler been killed here inside of two days," he exclaimed. "Must be
+Indians nigh, somewhere. Keep an eye out, boys."
+
+It was no time for any caution that included delay, and he walked on
+like a man who knew exactly where he was, and all followed him, the men
+cutting away the bushes here and there to let the wagons pass more
+easily. On, on, until at last Yellow Pine reached the spring.
+
+"Here it is," he said faintly, and then he lay down by it and began to
+drink slowly, using his hand for a cup.
+
+"Boys," said Judge Parks, "be careful how you drink too much at first.
+Take it easy. Sponge the mouths of the horses and then let them have a
+little at a time. Sile, my poor boy, come with me."
+
+Sile was making a tremendous effort. He had been doing it all day. He
+almost wanted to cry when he saw that spring of water. Then he wanted to
+laugh, but his mouth was too dry for that. All he could do was to smile
+in a sickly sort of way and take the cup his father held out to him.
+There was only a little water in the bottom of it.
+
+"Oh father, give me some more."
+
+"Not yet, Sile. Sit right down and wait till you get the effect of that.
+Hold it in your mouth before you swallow it. I don't mean to let you
+kill yourself."
+
+"Aha! But isn't it good? There isn't anything else quite so good as
+water."
+
+"That's a fact, Sile, but it's like a great many other good things, you
+don't know the value of it until you've had to go without it."
+
+A full hour was spent in getting men and animals ready to drink without
+injury, and Yellow Pine at last declared, triumphantly,
+
+"Jedge, we've won the riffle; we won't lose a hoof. All the men are
+doing first-rate too. This 'ere's my old campin'-ground, but there's
+been an Indian camp here since sun-up."
+
+"How do you know that, Pine?"
+
+"Found live fire. There hasn't been any dew on it to put it out. What's
+more, they've gone on into the mountains. Hunting-party. We're all
+right, jedge."
+
+The mining expedition now kindled fires of its own, and something was
+done in the way of getting supper. There was no grass, but the horses
+and mules could attend fairly well to the contents of their nose-bags,
+and the men paid them all manner of attention. Only a greenhorn is
+careless of the comfort and welfare of his horse.
+
+Sile drank well at last, under his father's direction, and then he felt
+like eating something. After that it seemed to him as if the whole world
+had only been made as a good place to sleep in. He did not care whether
+the tents were pitched or not. All he wanted was a piece of ground large
+enough to lie on, and a blanket, and he was ready to sleep as soundly
+and silently as if he had been one of the mountains which raised their
+shadowy heads into the light of the rising moon. He had been without
+water for the first time in his life. He had stood it through
+heroically, he had found a spring, and now he needed a long sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+INTO A NEW WORLD
+
+
+Two Arrows wiped the blood of the cougar from the blade of his lance. He
+was glad it was a good lance. His father had traded a pony for it, as he
+well knew, with a Mexican, years before that, and it was no ordinary
+weapon. He had chosen it from among half a dozen, as the very thing with
+which to do something uncommon, and now it had proved its value. He
+almost felt an affection for that lance.
+
+One-eye had lain down close to the dead body of the cougar, as if
+watching him for any returning signs of life. If that great cat had
+quivered, there was a dog ready to shake the quiver out of him.
+
+"It's all good meat," said Two Arrows, "but what shall I do with it?"
+
+There was but one answer to that question. He took off the skins of both
+animals, cut them up as well as he could, carried all the meat he did
+not need at once to a cool place among the rocks, piled stones over it
+and left it. He had no ice-house, and that was the best he could do, but
+he made a fire and ate plentifully of antelope venison, and of what the
+Western men call "painter meat." It was hard for him to say which he
+liked the best. Then he took a bit of charcoal and made his mark upon
+the rocks where he buried his game. He was immensely proud of his right
+to do that. He scored two very large and distinct arrows, heaped on some
+more heavy stones, shouted to One-eye, and again pushed forward. His
+exploring trip was already brimming full of glory and adventure, and he
+was ready to fight all the cougars in the mountains. So was One-eye, for
+he had had one of the biggest dinners he had ever eaten, and not another
+dog on hand to dispute it with him. He seemed to be possessed with an
+idea that that place must have more antelopes and mountain-cats in it,
+and that he was likely to find some of them behind rocks. He was
+doubtless right on the main point, but not a stone of the many he
+smelled under turned him out a cougar or a big-horn. Hunting was over
+for that day, and so much time had been consumed that Two Arrows felt
+like running to make it up. He did but walk, however, and as the road
+was now all the way downhill, like a bad man's life, he walked easily.
+The great gorge widened until its broken walls stretched away to the
+right and left, and the eager-hearted explorer came out from among the
+scattered rocks at a point from which he could suddenly see a great
+deal. Away beyond and below him spread such a scene as he could hardly
+have hoped for, and yet which can be found in hundreds of places all
+over the mountain country of the American continent. Just such scenes
+are to be found among the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, and every
+other similar group of rocky upheavals, but Two Arrows knew of no other
+country than his own, the one his band of Nez Percés had hunted and
+feasted and starved in.
+
+It was a great, deep, grassy, well-wooded, well-watered valley, the very
+home of game and a sure promise of all comfort to a hunter. How far it
+might reach to the westward no eye could tell, for the prospect was
+bounded by other mountains, and there were plain tokens that a
+considerable stream ran through the middle of it.
+
+"Much water, perhaps," said Two Arrows. "Must go somewhere. Find out
+some day."
+
+The idea of a river suggested the other idea that it could be followed
+until an ambitious boy could ascertain where it went to. All that was
+swallowed up at once by the immediate desire to get down upon that green
+grass and among those trees. One-eye had seen the valley, but was
+inclined to stick pretty closely at the side of his master. There were
+only two of them, and they might need each other's help at any moment.
+
+The road tramped by the bison herds did not wind much, as it went on
+down towards the level ground, but it lazily picked out the easiest
+slopes and turned the corners of the great rocks on good curves. As Two
+Arrows and his faithful companion wound around one of these curves,
+almost at the bottom of the long descent, they suddenly came upon a
+discovery that startled them. Even the dog pricked up his ears and began
+to growl, and Two Arrows stepped quickly back behind the rock. He had
+never been in a white man's village, but he had seen a fort and a few
+houses around it, and he had seen the houses of Mexican Indians and some
+others, built of "adobe" or sunburnt brick. He was not, therefore, a
+judge of such matters, and what he saw filled him with astonishment. He
+was not exactly alarmed, for a house could not chase him, but he
+exclaimed,
+
+"Pale-face lodge. Good many. Very bad. What can he do now?"
+
+He peered silently forth for several minutes, but not a human being was
+in sight. There were no signs of life, no curling smoke, no barking
+dogs, no cattle, nothing but scattered structures of stone. These must
+have been put there by somebody, but it began to look as if whoever had
+built them had gone to some other hunting-ground.
+
+Two Arrows noted everything with eyes that grew more brilliant in their
+swift and searching glances. There could hardly be any danger in such a
+solitude as that, but the occasion required caution, and the young
+"brave" made his advances from cover to cover as if there were eyes in
+every stone of those houses. One-eye crept at his side with his head and
+tail up, very much as if there had been game ahead. It was a curious
+piece of business. The nearer they drew to the objects of their
+curiosity the safer and lonelier became the appearance of all things.
+Some of the stone walls had tumbled down, and not one of them had a roof
+over it of any sort. That was nothing to Two Arrows. For all he knew
+there were tribes of cunning and wicked pale-faces who built their
+lodges without roofs. If the world contained anything cunning and wicked
+and dangerous, in the mind of Two Arrows it was a pale-face. He had been
+brought up to look upon a white man as a being to be watched, and as an
+evil to be avoided or destroyed, as the case might be, and yet as a sort
+of magician, capable of doing wonders, and of bringing the richest
+presents in all the earth.
+
+He now at last felt confidence and courage to actually crawl through an
+opening of one of those walls and look around him. It was one great,
+empty room, strewn with bits of stone, and growing thickly, here and
+there, were grass and tall weeds.
+
+"Nobody here for ever so long," had already been his conclusion, and he
+was thoroughly satisfied of it now. He arose and walked around and
+looked at things in that and every other house. Some of them had
+windows so high up as to prove that they must have had two or even three
+stories in some old time when people used them, but those were "signs"
+that Two Arrows could not read. The main thing to him was that he was
+still all alone and in perfect safety. If the wisest white man in the
+world had been there with him, he could not have formed an idea by whom
+those houses were constructed. Just such ruins have been found in many
+places among the valleys of the western mountains, and all that learned
+people can yet do is to guess how they came to be there. The houses did
+not come up like so many mushrooms, and beyond that they have almost
+nothing to say for themselves. Two Arrows had no further questions to
+ask, and One-eye had searched nooks and corners with an assiduity which
+had been duly rewarded: he had captured a fine, fat rabbit, and he
+brought it to his master as a sort of token. No rabbit would have made a
+home in a place infested by white men, for rabbits have the same idea of
+them that Indians have and for somewhat similar reasons. The rabbits get
+very little good from them, however, and the Indians a great deal--that
+is, unless the rabbits live near a white man's farm and garden. In that
+case they come up fully to the Indian standard and help themselves to
+all they can get hold of.
+
+Two Arrows picked up the rabbit and walked out to what had been the door
+of that house. It was nearly sunset, and there could be no more
+exploring done that day. He looked away off into the valley and saw
+another token that he was alone in that part of it: no less than three
+gangs of deer were feeding quietly between him and a bit of forest not
+more than half a mile away.
+
+Right past the group of old ruins ran a dancing brook of cool, pure
+water from the mountains, and a better place to camp in could not have
+been imagined. It was evidently safe to build a fire and cook the
+rabbit, but for more perfect safety Two Arrows made his blaze on a spot
+where some old walls prevented the light of it from being seen at too
+great a distance. After his supper was eaten there came over him a
+feeling that he had seen and done altogether too much for one boy in one
+day. He had come out into a sort of new world through a cleft in the
+mountains, and he did not know that precisely the same thing happens to
+every boy in the world who makes up his mind to be something. The boys
+who are contented not to be anything do not have much of a world to live
+in, anyhow, poor fellows; they only hang around and eat and wear
+clothes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SILE'S POCKET
+
+
+Na-tee-kah had all the load a girl of her size could comfortably carry
+when she set out with her people. So had all the rest except the
+dignified warriors. For that reason all the urging in the world could
+not get out of that dispirited cavalcade one-half the speed attained by
+Two Arrows and One-eye the previous evening. Na-tee-kah thought
+continually of her pony, between thoughts of her daring brother and
+wonderings of what he had done and seen. She knew very well that there
+is nothing so disables a "plains Indian" as to dismount him. It is not
+so bad as to break both his legs, but he is so accustomed, from
+childhood, to use a horse's legs instead of his own that he is like a
+man lost when he is set on foot. He has learned to hunt on horseback
+mostly, and all his fighting has been done in the saddle. The old-time
+Indians of the East and of Cooper's novels had hardly any horses, and in
+their deep forests could not have used them to advantage. What the far
+Western tribes did in those days nobody knows, but all the tribes which
+have migrated out of the woods into the prairie country have become
+"pony-men."
+
+Na-tee-kah could not remember another time when she, daughter of a
+chief, had been compelled to carry so much, even for a short distance.
+She knew how to pack a pony capitally well, for that is one of the first
+arts of Nez Percé house-keeping. When and where should they ever get
+some more ponies? Her father was a renowned horse-thief, and so were
+several others of the best warriors in the band, and there was hope in
+that thought; still there is a double difficulty before a man who sets
+out to steal horses without having one of his own to ride.
+
+"Two Arrows will steal horses some day," she said to Ha-ha-pah-no,
+confidently.
+
+"Big chief: steal a heap. No boy any more. Big Tongue find a horse; say
+he stole him. No brave. Pony come somehow."
+
+Nobody else in that band could have guessed how the mind of Long Bear
+himself was busy with plans concerning that very matter. He thought of
+all the horses of all the tribes at any kind of difference with the Nez
+Percés, and he thought of the white traders and their rich droves of
+quadrupeds of all sorts. He had won his rank fairly, as his son was
+likely to do after him, and he had a great deal of courage and ambition;
+just at present, however, he was a dismounted horse-thief, and he felt
+the disgrace of it even more than the inconvenience. It was a sad thing
+to be afoot at his time of life, and he brooded over it like some great
+white merchant who had suddenly failed in business. He feared that it
+would take some time to set up that band again, without any four-footed
+capital to begin on.
+
+It was pleasant to find the trail so good, at all events, and before
+dark they made out to reach the very spot where Two Arrows had camped.
+They had been more than twice as long in getting there, but the first
+brave who pushed on into the open space found the dead embers of a fire
+and began to study them. Not far behind him were Na-tee-kah and
+Ha-ha-pah-no, and it was hard to say which of them was the first to
+point at the black coals and ashes, and exclaim, "Two Arrows!"
+
+The word was echoed from lip to lip until it came to Long Bear and his
+wife. For a wonder he was walking beside her, which was as near as he
+could come to carrying her load for her. She was only the step-mother of
+Na-tee-kah and her brother, and had a pappoose of her own as part of her
+burden, but she took her full share of the family pride when her husband
+drew himself grimly up and shut off the strong temptation to "whoop."
+
+"Young brave," he said to her with great calmness. "Great chief some
+day. All like father. Same. Go steal pony pretty soon."
+
+The camp was quickly made, and there was food for all in moderate
+allowance. They were certain of resting in perfect security, and in the
+morning they were as eager as Two Arrows had been to push on out of such
+narrow quarters. Nothing happened to any of them until late in the day,
+and then the whole band went suddenly into camp again.
+
+The Big Tongue had become almost a silent Indian under the effects of
+hard walking, but he had been stung again by remarks from Ha-ha-pah-no,
+and he had gone ahead. He had not gone far enough to make him look
+enterprising, but all at once the cañon fairly rang with a whoop he sent
+back, to let the rest know he had found something. At the same moment
+three great vultures, or buzzard-eagles, arose from a prize they had
+found, and soared away. They were wonderfully wide-winged birds, and
+each carried off a good dinner, for they had nearly finished the offal
+left upon the ground by the carcasses of the cougar and the big-horn.
+
+The Big Tongue pointed proudly at the discovery he had made, and was
+about to say something, when he was once more overwhelmed. His whooping
+had brought a swarm of the braves around him, but of course no squaws
+had presumed to push in. It was for that very cause that the eyes of
+Na-tee-kah had been busy among the rocks, and so she had discovered the
+charcoal "token" scored upon one of them.
+
+"Two Arrows!" she screamed, and in a moment more there were warriors
+there, taking away the stones which covered the meat and the skins.
+
+It was time now for Long Bear to do all the whooping there was in him.
+His son had slain a cougar single-handed, and had killed a big-horn, and
+here were the proofs of it. The whole band could at once have another
+feast of fresh meat, provided by the young hero, for whom they were
+indebted to the great Long Bear.
+
+It was decided that they had travelled far enough for one day, but that
+an early start should be made the next morning. That had also been an
+interesting day at the camp by the spring.
+
+The over-wearied pale-faces slept well, but Yellow Pine arose three
+times to go around among the animals and see how they were doing. He had
+them all fed and rubbed down most carefully in the morning. It was a
+good thing to do, and when Sile Parks awoke and stretched himself, he
+felt as if he also wanted to be fed and rubbed down. Almost everybody
+else was already astir, and breakfast was soon ready for him.
+
+Yellow Pine did a deal of exploring, before and after he breakfasted,
+and Sile at once set out to imitate him. He asked some question or other
+of every one he saw, and believed that he had learned a great deal. At
+last he came to a heap of stones and bushes that seemed to him to have
+been piled up remarkably.
+
+"How could they ever have got there?" he said, as he began to pull upon
+a bush with green leaves yet clinging to its twigs. In five minutes more
+he knew where the Nez Percés had made their hasty "cache" for their
+lodges and other treasures, and he went at once to report it to his
+father and to Yellow Pine. The latter looked at Sile with positive
+respect, and exclaimed,
+
+"There now, jedge; that settles it. I know I'm right; them Indians had
+lost their ponies. I couldn't find a hoof-mark on their trail this
+morning; they dragged some lodge-poles along, though. I say, we must
+leave their cache jest as we found it. We must foller right along, too,
+or we'll run short of fodder. They've taken my old road. We needn't be
+afraid of 'em, only we'd best keep a sharp lookout."
+
+Horses and mules and all felt as if a day's rest would be as good as a
+treat; but after all was said and done it was decided to keep moving.
+The start made was not an early one, and there was work for all hands
+here and there. The herds of bisons had not prepared that road for the
+passage of wagon wheels, and it needed the axe in one place and the
+crow-bar in another before the teams could pass. There was no sort of
+danger that the Nez Percés would be caught up with by the mining-party,
+and Yellow Pine seemed to breathe more freely at the end of every mile.
+
+"No, jedge," he said; "we won't have to leave the outfit anywhere.
+There'll be a heap of hard work at some spots, but we can make our way
+through, and we can come and go by this track forever after it's well
+opened."
+
+Sile Parks learned a great deal that day about the mysteries of
+road-making; he also learned how much a really well-built wagon will
+stand if it is not too heavily loaded. For all that, however, the best
+part of his time was expended in staring at the peaks, and in searching
+the walls of the cañon for traces of gold and silver ore.
+
+"Father," said he at last, at a place where the wagons were "stuck" for
+a while, "I'm going ahead to see what'll turn up."
+
+"Don't go too far, that's all."
+
+"Keep yer eye out for mines," shouted Yellow Pine, with a laugh, and
+Sile took it seriously.
+
+"It's a gold country," he said to himself, "and I might stumble upon
+some of it."
+
+That was precisely what he made out to do. He was marching along, with
+his eyes on all the rocky precipices, as if the mouth of a gold-mine
+might open to him at any moment, and he was not so careful of his feet
+as he should have been. A loose stone shot away from under him, and down
+he came upon a fairly level floor of sand and gravel. It was so sudden
+and so sharp a dropping that he sat still for a moment and looked
+around him.
+
+"Halloo, what's that?" Something bright and yellow had caught his eye,
+peering out at him from the gravel his boot-heel had disturbed. "Gold!
+gold! A chunk of gold!"
+
+Thousands upon thousands of "placer miners" have raised precisely such a
+shout in just such sandy gullies, but Sile felt as if he were the first
+being on earth to whom such an experience had ever happened. He at once
+began to dig and sift among the gravel fiercely. He took out his
+hunting-knife and plied it as a trowel. Little bits of dull yellow metal
+rewarded him every now and then until he worked along to where a ledge
+(or the edge of one) of quartz came nearly to the surface. On the upper
+side of that, and lying closely against it, he pried out something that
+made him shout "Hurrah!" and that then gave him almost a sick feeling.
+It was a gathering of golden nuggets and particles which would nearly
+have filled his hat, and there were others like it, only smaller, all
+along the edge of that stone. For unknown centuries it had been serving
+as a "bar" in the natural "washer" made by that ravine, and had caught
+and kept whatever the torrents had borne down from crumbling quartz
+rocks above and had drifted against it.
+
+Sile thought of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp; then he thought of the
+California miners; then he shut his eyes for a moment. Then he went on
+digging, and he was hard at it when a tall form stooped over him and the
+voice of Yellow Pine exclaimed,
+
+"I'd call it--If the youngster hasn't lighted onto a placer and scooped
+the biggest kind of a pocket! Sile, you've done it. You can jest ax me
+all the fool questions you've a mind to after this. You was really
+learnin' by 'em."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A TRAPPED BOY
+
+
+When the light awoke Two Arrows, he found One-eye standing guard as if
+he did not like the look of things, but no danger showed itself. It was
+a new country--too much so, perhaps--and a dog with a high sense of duty
+could not be too careful. Two Arrows also had duties, and he felt that
+one of them was to go back at once and tell his band what he had
+discovered. He had no idea that they were already on the march, or he
+might have been less troubled in mind about them. His other duty, not
+quite so plain, was to explore the valley a little and see how many
+buffaloes and deer and all that sort of thing were in it. He wondered at
+the greenness of the grass, not knowing that the mountain range east of
+it took care of that, taking the water out of the winds from the west so
+that they were often sponge-dry when they passed over upon the parching
+plains beyond. He had never heard of Eden and he could not make any
+comparisons, but he roundly declared that he had never been in a place
+that promised better hunting. He did not even ask himself how a herd of
+bisons should remember what their fathers had told them about that
+valley and come hundreds of miles to find grass there. He had not seen
+one yet, but he had caught a glimpse of a gang of deer in rapid motion.
+That fact set him to thinking and made him cautious, for it was an hour
+when deer are feeding unless they have been disturbed. He cooked and ate
+his breakfast, providing liberally for One-eye, but could hardly make up
+his mind in which direction to go. There was the mouth of the cañon,
+telling him one thing, and in all other directions were the possible
+secrets of that valley.
+
+His feet took him along, at last, and he wandered for nearly a mile
+before he came to any sort of adventure. Then he suddenly discovered why
+the deer were in motion, and why it was time for him and One-eye to
+wander back again. It was almost as bad as a war-party of another tribe
+or even a band of wicked pale-faces, for at the edge of a little grove
+of wild plum-trees One-eye broke out into something between a howl and a
+bark, and turned, running towards his master. Then Two Arrows himself
+turned and ran, for his quick eyes caught the meaning of it. The head of
+a grisly bear came out between two bushes, and no idea of heroism called
+for any waiting. The cañon, or the ruins, or almost any other place,
+would have been better, at that moment, than the spot where he was when
+Bruin saw him.
+
+The grisly may have had bad-luck that morning. At all events, he was out
+after game, and was in a bad temper. He hated all dogs, naturally, and
+he had seen One-eye. He hated men, as well, but his first rush was after
+the scared quadruped. That was an excellent thing for Two Arrows. He was
+the best runner of his age in his band, and never before had he done
+quite so well, but he stuck to his weapons. His bag of provisions had
+been hidden among the old houses, and he was glad of it as he bounded
+away across the grass. Every jump counted, for One-eye was doing the
+right thing. He was not following his master too closely, he was only
+thinking of getting away from that bear. He, too, had been the best
+runner of his tribe, when there had been other dogs to run with him, and
+he certainly was now. He ran well, but so did the bear, for a good horse
+does not too easily overtake a grisly, and a man on foot can never do it
+if the bear does his best.
+
+It was an exciting race, but Two Arrows knew it must have an end some
+time. He longed for a tree, and to be away up in the top of it, but
+there were none near enough to be of any use. He kept an eye on the
+other racers, and it was not many minutes before he saw that One-eye was
+doing almost too well. He was getting away so fast that the grisly gave
+him up and turned to his other chance for a breakfast. It was as if he
+had said to himself,
+
+"Dogs are no good. They run too well. A nice, tender, well-fed Indian
+boy, now, and I'll get him in a moment."
+
+Two Arrows had gained a pretty good start, and it led him towards the
+cañon. He tried to calculate the distance, and how long it would take
+him to get there, but his next thought was that he had never heard of a
+grisly that could gallop and rush like this one.
+
+"It'll all be over with me. I'd fight him, but he's too much for me. Got
+to die now."
+
+It was an awful moment, and all the courage in him did not make it any
+less so. The claws and jaws and hug of a mountain grisly are a terrible
+prospect to set before anybody's ambition.
+
+Just then another prospect and a ray of hope dawned upon him. Away to
+the right he saw a solitary bowlder of gray granite, with a round top,
+nearly thirty feet above the grass.
+
+"If it isn't too smooth to climb," flashed through the mind of Two
+Arrows, as he turned and ran for it. He was running now for his life,
+and the bear was rapidly gaining on him, but it told well for his valor
+that he did not drop lance or bow.
+
+Nearer, now, and he could see that the rock was one of those
+bald-headed, smooth-cheeked affairs that look as if they had been ground
+and polished in a mill.
+
+"Ugh! Other side, maybe," groaned Two Arrows, as he dodged around the
+hopeless side he came to. Away around, and the same mocking smoothness
+made his heart sink, while the fierce growl of the huge wild beast
+behind him thrilled him through and through.
+
+"Ugh! rough place! Climb."
+
+It was a mere crack at the surface of the ground, but at a few feet
+above it the granite surface was somewhat broken. A good spring, aided
+by the tough shaft of his lance, and Two Arrows managed to brace himself
+upon a tolerable holding. If he should slip there would be an end of it,
+for the grisly was close up now. He clung like a fly, and found place
+after place for his hands and feet. In a moment more he was sitting upon
+the round top of the rock safe, but a prisoner, with a guard set to keep
+him secure. He had come out after adventures and he had found one of the
+very largest kind. He had never heard such tremendous roaring growls as
+the disappointed grisly was now uttering. Between these he could also
+hear, at no great distance, the mournful howls of One-eye. The sagacious
+animal had not self-conceit enough to match his weight and size against
+a brute that could have whipped a lion in five minutes, but he could
+express his feelings concerning the state of affairs.
+
+"He can't get up here," said Two Arrows, but he said it doubtfully, for
+the grisly is a rock bear, and is made for climbing. He was now
+studying the face of that rock at the cleft, and it was not long before
+he made up his mind that he could do something.
+
+"I won't waste any arrows on him," said the boy on the top of the
+bowlder. "Besides, if I don't get him too angry he may go off."
+
+Not without trying a climb for his human game; and it was wonderful with
+what care and consideration, as well as skill and strength, Bruin made
+his effort.
+
+Two-Arrows lay down, bow in hand, and watched him, as he raised his huge
+bulk against the side of the rock. The long, strong, cruel-looking claws
+took hold of crevices and roughnesses much more powerfully than a human
+hand or foot could have grasped them. A grunt, a growl, a great lift,
+and the grisly was off the ground.
+
+"He is coming. Let him come one length nearer."
+
+Two Arrows did not know that he was testing his quality as a warrior and
+chief to be. It was a marvellous trial of cool courage to lie there,
+with an arrow on the string, and bide his time.
+
+"Now! Ugh!"
+
+The arrow went truly to its mark, but the hide of a grisly is a tough
+shield, and the shaft did not go as deeply as it might have gone into a
+deer or bison. Arrow after arrow sped in swift, unerring succession, and
+the bear received them with roars of fury, struggling upward as his
+wrath and pain aroused him to greater efforts.
+
+"My last two arrows. One for that leg, just above the claw."
+
+Cool and correct again, and the last brace of shafts did their work to
+admiration. They did not kill the grisly nor even loosen the gripe of
+that great forearm and claw upon the rock, but the next struggle of the
+bear brought him upon smooth stone, gently rounding. He reached out over
+it with his wounded limb, and the black hooks at the end of it did not
+work well. His game was within a length of him, but it was game that
+held a long Mexican lance in its ready hand. Under other circumstances
+Bruin could have parried that thrust and closed with its giver, but not
+now. It went through his other forearm, and his gripe with that loosened
+for a second or so--only for an instant, but that was enough. Slip,
+slide, growl, tear, roar, and the immense monster rolled heavily to the
+ground below, full of rage and arrow-wounds, and altogether unfitted for
+another steep climb.
+
+Two Arrows drew a great breath of relief, but he well knew that he had
+not yet escaped. There were oceans of hate and fight in the wounded
+grisly, and there was no use whatever in going down for a fair match
+with him upon the grass. He was in his most dangerous state, and the top
+of the rock would have to answer all purposes for a season. There was no
+telling how long that would be, for even when the bear arose and limped
+all the way around the bowlder, his ferocious growls plainly declared
+his purpose. He had not the least idea of letting the matter stop there.
+He meant to stay and watch it out. Perhaps more grislies would come to
+help him and keep guard while he should doctor himself. It was a most
+remarkable trap for a young explorer to get caught in, and he well knew
+that a grisly will take more killing and die longer and harder than any
+other known animal. Besides, he had no idea how much or how seriously
+his shafts had touched the vitals of his enemy.
+
+He must stay where he was, and now he felt something like a sensation of
+mortification. One-eye had deserted him. All the howling had died away
+while the bear was climbing the rock. The last dog of that band of Nez
+Percés had turned tail and left his master on the top of a bowlder to be
+starved out by a bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE ERRAND OF ONE-EYE
+
+
+The wagons came slowly on down the pass, but it was only a few moments
+before everybody but the two drivers had dismounted and stood gazing at
+Sile's remarkable "find." There were old "placer miners" among them, and
+they all declared that it was just the place in which they would have
+expected a "bonanza." Then they all added that without water to wash the
+sand and gravel with, there would be little use in doing anything more
+than to hunt for "pockets." There might be "pay dirt" in all directions,
+but a man might scratch and sift until he starved and not get more than
+enough to buy him a new hat. They had been through all that sort of
+experience, and their heads were not to be turned by it. Still, it was
+decided to try that level again some day, and the whole cañon, at a time
+of the year when water was to be had. All that could now be done was to
+carefully search for and gather up the odds and ends of Sile's "luck."
+Even the necessity of grass for the horses compelled the train to move
+onward.
+
+When they came to the rocky ledge, with the precipice on one side and
+the mountain wall on the other, Judge Parks turned to Yellow Pine with a
+face full of doubt.
+
+"Don't you be skeered, jedge. I took a measure of it at the narrerest
+p'int, and it'll let the wheels go by and two feet to spare."
+
+That was close work, when they came to it, and Sile shuddered all over
+as he saw how near the wheels came to the edge of destruction. A restive
+mule, a scared horse, a little backing and plunging, and disaster was
+ready to come. Not an animal shied, however, though some of them
+trembled and sheered in towards the rock. It was hardest when they had
+to hold back going down and around some of the sharper curves. Sile had
+several tremendous shudders at such places and drew long breaths of
+relief afterwards, as the wagons rolled on in safety. Then, on the next
+level below, there was more axe and crow-bar work to be done, and it was
+late in the day when the train once more reached a deserted
+camping-ground of the band of Indians they seemed to be pursuing.
+
+"We'd better take a rest here, jedge. It's been a hard day on the men
+and the hosses, and we've struck gold a'ready."
+
+Sile had been strangely aware of that fact for some hours, and it had
+dazed him a little. He had walked on without asking a question of
+anybody. He had a dim idea that the metal he had found was worth a
+great deal of money, but he hardly cared to know how much. It was a new
+and wonderful sensation. His father told him there was enough of it to
+buy him a farm and stock it, and when Yellow Pine had finished his other
+duties, at going into camp, and had noted all the signs the Nez Percés
+left behind, he said to Sile,
+
+"Now, my boy, gather up all the charcoal you can rake from those dead
+fires and I'll show you something. Slugs are safer to carry than dust
+and nuggets. I allers used to slug my finds, first thing."
+
+That was Greek to Sile, but Yellow Pine rummaged one of the wagons and
+brought out a long-nosed bellows and a crucible and a sort of mould that
+opened with two handles. He put the crucible in among the coals, filled
+it from Sile's yellow heap, covered it, and began to work the bellows.
+Sile was astonished to find how speedily what Pine called "bullion"
+would melt, and how easy it was to run it into little bars. There did
+not seem to be so much of it, but there was less danger that any of the
+smaller chunks and scales and particles could get away.
+
+"There, Sile. There's your farm, cows, hosses, hogs and all, and it only
+cost you a gitten' thirsty."
+
+"They're wonderful," was all Sile could make out to say, and his father
+put them in a bag and locked them up in an iron-bound box in one of the
+wagons.
+
+"You needn't scratch into all the sand you come to after this," said
+Yellow Pine. "That's what takes the tuck out of placer miners. One good
+pocket'll most ginerally spile the eyes of a green hand."
+
+He assured the judge that one more push would bring them to good grass,
+and he added,
+
+"What's more, we ain't in any hurry to ketch up with no redskins till we
+know what they are. It's peace with most on 'em, but this 'ere isn't a
+strong band, and I kinder want to feel my way."
+
+There was sense in that, especially as he knew that Indians without
+horses are also Indians on the lookout for some. What he did not know
+was the state of mind that band of Nez Percés was in at that hour.
+
+They had set out very early that morning, and were plodding on steadily
+down the winding slopes of the cañon, when there came to them an
+unexpected sensation. It was a dog.
+
+Right up the trail trotted One-eye, all alone, and with an air of
+business anxiety. He neither paused nor turned until he came to Long
+Bear himself, and in front of the chief he sat down, threw up his head,
+and let out the most mournful howl he knew--and he knew a great many.
+
+"Where Two Arrows?" asked the chief, as if the dog had been human, and
+he was answered first by another howl and then by an eager look and a
+tug at his deer-skin leggings. Then One-eye trotted off a little
+distance along the trail and looked back and barked, and the dullest man
+in the world could have understood him. It all plainly meant,
+
+"Come on. There's a fellow down this way that's in need of help. Follow
+me and help him."
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Long Bear, and he added the names of half a dozen of
+the leading braves. "Two Arrows send dog after warrior. Come."
+
+That was somewhat more than the truth, seeing that all the credit
+belonged to One-eye, but in a minute or so the old chief was leading his
+men rapidly down the pass. There was nothing whatever to be said, and
+One-eye kept well ahead of them, every now and then trying to express an
+idea he had that no time was to be wasted.
+
+"Ugh!" was all the remark made by any brave when the valley came in
+sight, and hardly more was remarked upon the ruins of the ancient
+village, but every grunt meant a great deal.
+
+"Not here. Dog go right on," said Long Bear. "Follow. Find Two Arrows
+somewhere."
+
+They had not far to go now before they halted as if with one accord.
+From the summit of a granite bowlder, a hundred yards in advance of
+them, came a shrill whoop, and there stood the object of their search,
+firmly erect and seemingly unharmed.
+
+"Boy all right," said Big Tongue. "Better come down."
+
+"Two Arrows no fool," said Long Bear. "Go slow. Watch dog."
+
+One-eye still trotted on, but more slowly, until he turned the corner of
+the rock. He reappeared in a second, with a sharp, warning yelp,
+followed by the fierce growling charge of an uncommonly large grisly
+bear.
+
+"Ugh!" said Long Bear. "Stand still. Boy been treed."
+
+He had not been "treed," he had been bowldered, and the grisly had been
+arrowed and lanced thoroughly. His angry charge had been made with his
+last energies, and before he advanced half-way he reeled and fell.
+
+There was no boy upon the rock now. Two Arrows darted down from his
+perch, slipping, sliding the instant the bear followed One-eye. He had
+waited up there for hour after hour, looking down at his half disabled
+enemy, and he was tired of it. He had seen that the strength of the bear
+was failing and that he bled freely, and was not far behind him when he
+fell.
+
+"Whoop! whoop! whoop! I have killed a grisly. My bear!" he shouted, and
+it was all in vain that the Big Tongue ran faster than even the Long
+Bear himself, for Two Arrows had the advantage of them. His lance was
+the first to be plunged into the dying monster, and the great brute tore
+up the sod around him for only half a minute before he stretched himself
+out and all was over. With the help of several hours of quiet bleeding,
+which cannot always be provided for in such cases, Two Arrows had fought
+and killed a grisly single-handed, and again Long Bear was the proudest
+man in the whole Nez Percé nation. The steepness of the rock had helped
+a good deal, and the bear had hardly had a fair chance, but after all he
+had been whipped by a boy of fifteen. It was a disgrace to the grisly
+but it was a great honor to the young hero, for by all Indian law he was
+thenceforth entitled to wear the claws of that bear on state occasions.
+Adding all things together, bisons and big-horn and cougar and grisly,
+Two Arrows was rapidly getting to be a middle-aged warrior, and the
+other boys had no hope of catching up with him. He might also fairly be
+said to have led his band into that valley, and now the pity of it was
+that they had no ponies to eat such excellent grass.
+
+The remainder of the band came down the pass remarkably, with Na-tee-kah
+well in advance of everybody else.
+
+"Could anything terrible have happened to Two Arrows?"
+
+Her heart beat hard with exertion and anxiety, and when she reached the
+level she hurried right along upon the trail of the braves. It was not
+many minutes before she could see them, and a sort of mist came before
+her eyes. They were all sitting upon the grass around something, and she
+could hear her father's voice chanting. It was a curious kind of song of
+triumph, belonging especially to a case of large grisly bear slaying,
+but Na-tee-kah could not hear it clearly at first, and it might have
+been a funeral song for all the music there was in it. All out of breath
+she toiled on, as near as an Indian girl might come to a party of
+warriors, and then she understood it like a flash. Red or white, she was
+only a girl, and she sat down on the grass and began to cry. The Big
+Tongue had risen as she came near, and he was polite enough to say to
+her,
+
+"Squaw not cry. Boy all right. We have killed a bear. Ugh!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+GREAT SCOUTING
+
+
+The quadrupeds of the mining expedition showed many signs of the hard
+time they had been having, and it was needful to get out from among the
+rocks quickly. It was yet quite shadowy in the deep cañon when the
+wagons were set in motion, but not a great deal of "road mending" was
+called for from that point onward. Early in the day they came out upon
+the level, and before noon the horses and mules were picking the rich
+grass around the ancient ruins.
+
+It was a grand time, and Sile had a dim idea that he only drew his
+breath now and then, the great, long ones came so frequently. He had
+felt one kind of awe in the cañon and in looking at the mountain peaks.
+Now he felt quite another kind of awe in looking at the rude mason-work
+of those houses.
+
+"Father," he asked, "do you s'pose they were people anything like us?"
+
+"They built three-story houses. No Indians ever did that."
+
+"Is there nothing at all about them in history?"
+
+"Yes, here are the ruins. Here are little books like this."
+
+He handed Sile what looked for all the world like a broken piece of an
+old pot, and Sile said so.
+
+"That's it. If it is one, it shows that they understood making pottery.
+Nobody has ever found anything to prove that they were miners, and all
+the stones of these houses are only broken. None of them are cut or
+trimmed."
+
+It was a wonder of wonders to stand there and talk about a lost and
+vanished people, but Yellow Pine was thinking of a people who had
+vanished without being lost. They were the Indians whose camp-grounds he
+had moved into and out of, and he had an idea that they might be found
+again at any hour. He advised the judge not to move on again until some
+exploring and scouting should have been done. Meantime the "critters,"
+as he called them, did their feeding under a strong guard and close
+watching.
+
+"Sile," he said, "as soon as your horse has had a good feed, you and I
+will ride a circuit and see what we can find."
+
+Sile's blood danced a little. Scouting after Indians was a thing he had
+read about, and he did not dwell too much upon the fact that he was
+chosen to go with Pine rather because his horse was a fast one and had
+not pulled wagons than for any reason. Pine said to him,
+
+"Your eyes are pretty good ones, too. Who knows but what you might see
+something. Jedge, I won't run him into any danger. Them Indians is all
+on foot."
+
+Sile set to work at once upon his repeating-rifle, his revolver, and the
+edge of his hunting-knife, as if he had a battle with Pawnees on hand.
+He gave up studying the ruins at once, and even forgot how many nuggets
+his gold had been run into. He had never before felt precisely that kind
+of excitement, and was too young to know that every entirely new
+enthusiasm is worth a whole book in the way of education, if it comes
+rightly. People who have never been waked up are apt to be dull people.
+
+It was an old story to Yellow Pine, and when at last they both were
+mounted and ready to ride away, it was worth while to look at his
+cast-iron face and then at that of Sile Parks.
+
+"Sile," said his father, as he looked at him, "bring me in some Indians;
+not a whole tribe; just a few."
+
+"Come on, Sile," said Pine. "We'll bring all we find, I reckon."
+
+He showed no disposition to ride fast, but cantered away to the right,
+skirting the edge of the mountain slope, and seeming to study every
+clump of trees and bushes they came to. It was mostly grassy "open" for
+quite a distance from the mouth of the cañon.
+
+"No smoke anywhere," said Pine. "They're not camped hereaway."
+
+"I walked out along their trail, at the ruins," said Sile. "Why didn't
+you follow it?"
+
+"That's a fair question, Sile. It looks as if I'd orter ha' done it, but
+you see, I don't want to ketch up with 'em or let 'em know we're here. I
+want to find 'em without telling 'em what road I kem by."
+
+It was a sort of half-Indian cunning, but it was not quite equal to the
+needs of the matter. Full-blooded Indian cunning beat it all to pieces,
+as they were to find out before morning. It came to pass in a perfectly
+easy and natural sort of way.
+
+When the entire band of Nez Percés had arrived, and every soul in it had
+taken a look at the dead grisly, they had no notion of walking back a
+single rod. The braves had noted the indications of running water in the
+distance, and they pushed on until they found a camp-ground on the
+border of a swift, bright stream, almost alive with trout. It was
+bordered by a wide band of forest, and the trees were magnificent. Here
+at last they could all sit down in a kind of peace and plenty, and mourn
+for their dogs and ponies.
+
+Two Arrows had no mourning to do. What he really needed was to be
+hooped, like a barrel, for fear his pride and ambition might burst him.
+He felt as if he were about ten feet high and weighed more than a horse.
+All the other Indians he had heard of were nothing at all to what he
+was or was pretty soon going to be. He almost despised cougars and even
+grislies until he recalled how he had felt when the open jaws of the one
+which had hunted him came up over the curve of the bowlder.
+
+It occurred to him that he had better have a rock or something to help
+him next time, but his vanity suggested that after all he had invented
+that rock. The other Indian boys hardly felt like speaking to him, and
+Na-tee-kah called him to supper as respectfully as if he had been a
+full-grown warrior. He felt like one, and as if the camp were too small
+for him; so he walked out of it after supper, and his feet carried him
+farther. They seemed to have an idea of their own that it would be good
+for him to take another look at the bowlder where he had been watched
+for by the grisly. A thorough understanding of that matter might have
+taken him down a little, but he was to have better medicine yet before
+he again reached his father's lodge. He had his bow and arrows with him
+but no lance, and it was getting too dusky for hunting. The ground he
+was walking over was pretty level but it had its hollows, and as he came
+up out of one of these he suddenly dropped flat upon the grass. He had
+not been hurt, but he had seen something that in a manner knocked him
+down. It was the biggest surprise he had had since he came through the
+cañon, for two pale-faces on horseback were cantering along at no great
+distance. They had not seen him, he was sure of that, although they were
+evidently looking for something. He let them pass and go on until he
+felt safe in following. Every nerve in his body tingled with fierce
+excitement.
+
+"War-path!" he exclaimed. "Ugh! Two Arrows a brave now. Get horse. Big
+warrior. Grow a heap. Find pale-face camp."
+
+Running, walking, creeping, as the mists of evening deepened, the young
+Nez Percé followed those two horsemen, cunningly avoiding all detection.
+He followed them to the edge of the rocky ground at the foot of the
+mountain slope, and there he saw them turn to the left.
+
+"Know now," he muttered. "Pale-face came through cañon. Follow Nez
+Percé. Got plenty horse. Two Arrows great brave. Ugh!"
+
+He should have gone for help and have performed the rest of his task in
+older company, but he was full to over-flowing with the vanity of
+winning another "heap" of glory. He felt entirely competent to deal with
+one band of white men, and to carry all their horses into his own camp.
+His rapid successes had been too much for him, and it is sometimes very
+nearly the same with young fellows of a different color.
+
+He lost sight of his human game several times, and it was now pretty
+dark, but his keen eyes caught the glow of camp-fires at last, and he
+knew what that meant. What he did not know was that Yellow Pine and Sile
+had ridden a wide circuit across that open and had discovered no sign
+of danger.
+
+"Them Indians," said Pine, as they were riding in, "have gone on to the
+timber. They can't have the least idee that we're here, on the ground
+they passed over. To-morrer we must make another scout, though I sha'n't
+be easy till I know jest what kind of neighbors we're to have."
+
+That was common-sense, and so was the extreme care with which the
+quadrupeds were gathered and hobbled and "corralled" between the
+protecting masses of the ruins. The members of the mining party were
+already divided into "watches," taking regular turns, and Sile and a man
+named Jonas were in the first watch with Yellow Pine. That gave him a
+chance for an unbroken sleep when his work was done. What was also good,
+it gave him a rest to get sleepy in, and to let all the steam of his
+excitement get away from his head. He ate well, and he felt somewhat
+weary afterwards, but there was a queer idea growing in his mind that he
+was in the neighborhood of strange Indians, and that nobody could tell
+what might turn up.
+
+"Pine," said he, "if I see an Indian shall I kill him?"
+
+"Yell first, and get out of his way, unless he holds out his hand and
+says 'How?' But you won't have any chance this night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A WRESTLING MATCH
+
+
+The moon was to come up late that night, and all the first part of it
+would be lighted only by stars and camp-fires. The mining party had but
+two of these latter burning low, and the Nez Percé band had not any,
+after they had done their cooking, but the stars sent down enough light
+to make things visible at short distances. The two camps were not over
+four miles apart.
+
+The only really wide-awake watchman in one of them was One-eye, and he
+patrolled in all directions as if he had an idea that matters must be
+less secure in the absence of his wonderful young master. Only one dog
+to do the barking for a whole village was something very uncommon in
+Indian history, but it was well to have the great duty given to an
+entirely competent dog.
+
+The boy whom One-eye considered the greatest personage in all that
+valley had now crept near enough to the mining camp to get a fair idea
+of what it contained. He saw a wealth of horse-flesh and mule-flesh,
+every quadruped of it worth half a dozen Indian ponies, and his
+ambition almost lifted him up from the grass. It stirred any amount of
+reckless daring, and it made him remember all the stories he had ever
+heard of famous chiefs who stole into camps and then stripped them clean
+of everything. He was already that kind of chief in his own estimation,
+and did not know that within a hundred yards of him there sat a white
+boy, of about his own age, not so tall but broader in the shoulders, who
+was at that moment recalling a long list of just such stories.
+
+Sile had fairly read up on Indian fiction before he left home, and his
+ideas of the way some things could be done were a little misty. He could
+hardly sit still for one moment, and preferred to stroll around among
+the horses to make sure no red man's hand was reaching out for one of
+them. Old Pine smiled grimly now and then, for he felt perfectly safe on
+the Indian question, but at last he heard an unaccountable rustling at
+one end of the corral, and then a loud hurrah from Sile.
+
+The idea had been in Sile's head that his proper course was to go about
+very much as if he were himself about to steal the horses, and his
+noiseless movements carried him to the outer edge of the corral at
+exactly the right moment. He was standing at the side of a tall mule, in
+the shadow of it and completely hidden, when he saw something darker
+than a shadow glide out from between two tall weeds and swiftly writhe
+its way forward. His heart beat like a trip-hammer. His first thought
+was to use his rifle, but it was a new and dreadful thing to take a
+human life, and he could not lift his weapon. His eyes said, "Not a
+large Indian," and his hands let go of the rifle. The next instant, and
+just as Two Arrows rose to his feet, Sile sprang forward and grappled
+with him.
+
+It was a most perilous thing to do, considering that Two Arrows carried
+a knife; but the young Nez Percé had also been thinking, and had made up
+his mind that "war" was no part of his errand. His tribe was at peace
+with the pale-faces, except as to horse-flesh, and that fact saved
+Sile's life. He had been accounted the best wrestler in his set, at home
+and at school, and his muscles were in capital order. It was not by any
+means an uneven match, therefore, and Two Arrows would have been glad
+enough to get away. He had no clothing for Sile to hold him by, and
+there was more and more danger of losing him every moment, but the shout
+of warning had hardly begun to rouse the general camp before a pair of
+long, sinewy arms wound around poor Two Arrows from behind.
+
+"I've got him," said Yellow Pine. "Run for a rope. You're jest the
+luckiest youngster I ever knowed."
+
+By the time the rope was there, every man in camp was up and out, and
+the grass and weeds within sight had rifle muzzles pointed at
+everything among them as big as a human head.
+
+"No whoopin' sounded," said Yellow Pine. "This cub was alone. I say, you
+young coyote, you jest answer my questions now, or I'll tan the hide
+clean off ye."
+
+Two Arrows drew himself up proudly and looked at him in silence, but
+Pine led his captive on into the fire-light and picked up a heavy
+"black-snake" whip, for he was justly angry.
+
+It was a terrible come-down for the ambition of a young chief. Captured
+on his first raid and threatened with a horsewhipping. He felt ready to
+burst, but it was not with vanity this time.
+
+"Where's yer band? Where's their camp?" asked Pine, with a significant
+flourish of the black-snake, but the Indian boy looked him unflinchingly
+in the face without a sound or a motion.
+
+"Speak, now," began Pine; but Sile had finished answering some hurried
+questions from his father, and he now asked one for himself.
+
+"I say, Yellow Pine, didn't I grab him first? Isn't he my prisoner as
+much as he is yours?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, now, I don't want him flogged. He didn't use his knife. You
+always said it was best to be friends with 'em."
+
+"I'd call it---- Jedge, it's jest so. Sile's right. I'd kinder lost my
+head. Look a-here, redskin, next time you come for hosses you won't get
+off so easy. I'll unhitch ye now, and let ye up. There now, Sile, shake
+hands with him."
+
+"How?" said Sile, as he held out his hand to the loosened captive.
+
+"How?" said Two Arrows, and he said it a little sullenly, but he had
+been glancing from Pine's face to Sile's and understood pretty well that
+the latter had stopped the proposed work of the black-snake.
+
+"Make him a present of something, Sile," said his father. "Here--give
+him this."
+
+It was a small round pocket-mirror, worth twenty-five cents, but there
+was no telling what it was worth in the estimation of such a boy as Two
+Arrows--perhaps a pound or so of gold nuggets, if he had them, or the
+skin of his grisly bear, after the glory of killing it had worn a little
+thin. At all events, he was a most astonished Indian. Evidently these
+monsters in human form were disposed to be friends with
+him--particularly this red-headed young chief who had proved himself so
+good a wrestler. All he had ever heard of pale-faces was against
+believing it, but there was no chance of escaping from the ring of
+riflemen now gathered around him, and he gave it up. He answered Yellow
+Pine's questions by signs only, until something he said brought an
+exclamation from the old miner Jonas.
+
+"Nez Percé! He's a Nez Percé, Pine. I know their lingo. He can talk
+some English, too. He needn't play 'possum any longer."
+
+Two Arrows felt that he was completely beaten, and even pride failed to
+carry him any farther. It came to his mind, also, with a peculiar force,
+that he was by no means sure of the approval of Long Bear and his
+warriors. They had not sent him out to kill pale-faces and bring upon
+them the vengeance of the terrible "brass-button men" he had heard of.
+He had seen a few of them, and had wondered at their great knives, twice
+as long as his arm. He decided to speak out now, and in a few moments
+Jonas had pumped him thoroughly.
+
+"He isn't on any war-path," said Yellow Pine to Judge Parks; "he's jest
+a fool of a boy. We'll keep him till mornin' and carry him over to his
+own camp. It's the best way in the world to make friends with 'em."
+
+"All right," replied the judge; "we must get out some presents. See that
+he doesn't get away."
+
+"I'll look out for that--you bet I will."
+
+So he did, and Two Arrows had now no knife with which to cut the rope
+whereby he was tied to Yellow Pine's elbow when that "big brave" lay
+down again. Sile rolled himself up in a blanket, only a few feet from
+them, and hardly slept a wink. He had captured a wild red Indian and it
+beat all the novels he had ever seen. He did not hear his father chuckle
+to himself, nor could he read the thoughts of the old judge. Long Bear
+himself was not prouder of Two Arrows and his grisly than was Sile's
+father of the manner in which his own boy had met and grappled with a
+sudden peril.
+
+"He'll be at the head of something or other some day," he muttered, as
+he was dropping asleep.
+
+Not even Na-tee-kah knew anything of the movements or whereabouts of Two
+Arrows this time, and her father questioned her in vain. His absence was
+"irregular," and when the hours went by and he did not return, the Long
+Bear's face put on an expression of stern displeasure.
+
+"Boy too big," he said; "grow too fast. Brave too soon. Young chief,
+though. Great warrior by-and-by, like father. Come back. Talk hard to
+him."
+
+Na-tee-kah's thoughts followed her hero brother so long as her eyes were
+open. She had no doubt whatever that he would quickly turn up again with
+a great heap of new glory. She dreamed of his performing all sorts of
+marvellous things. All the other boys in camp were planning to catch up
+and get ahead of him, she knew, for she had heard some of them say so.
+The Big Tongue had told her of a large number of bears belonging to his
+record, and he was going on to tell of more when Ha-ha-pah-no overheard
+and asked him,
+
+"Kill bear all with tongue? Shoot big lie right through? Catch old bear
+and talk to him; bear die!"
+
+Her tongue was sharp enough, and she strongly sympathized with
+Na-tee-kah's enthusiasm for Two Arrows. The Big Tongue got away from her
+and the camp grew more and more quiet.
+
+The spot chosen for it, in a curve of the stream, was one of rare
+beauty, and the loop formed by the long sweep of the rippling water
+would have been just the place for a secure corral, if that band of Nez
+Percés had had any four-footed property to be anxious about. It was not
+needful to keep a guard over their hope of stealing some thereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A GREAT CAPTAIN
+
+
+The band of Nez Percés had done very well thus far, and so had the band
+of white miners, but there had been one other band of travellers which
+had accomplished a good deal by reason of having an uncommonly good
+commander.
+
+The wicked old mule that had engineered the stampede of the Nez Percé
+ponies had continued to hold his position as captain. He could out-kick
+and out-bray any other mule there, and no mere pony would have dreamed
+of disputing him. There was some grass to be had, next day after the
+escape, and there was yet a little water in the pools rapidly drying
+away, but there was nothing anywhere to tempt to a stoppage. On he went,
+and on went the rest after him, and the reason why the warriors could
+not find his trail was because he did not leave any. He obeyed the
+strong instinct of all large animals, and some smaller ones, to "follow
+a beaten path and keep in a travelled road." He struck the well-made
+buffalo trail and did not find any reason for wandering from it.
+Multitudes of men have a precisely similar instinct, and keep in any
+particular path in life mainly because they are in it; they stick all
+the closer if they can see anybody else doing the same thing. That was
+what the wicked old mule saw, and he may have imagined that the squad or
+rather string of bisons ahead of him knew where they were going and what
+for. At all events he led his band closely behind them, and they plodded
+on in a way that carried them ahead quite rapidly. It carried them into
+the pass and through it, mule, ponies and all, and there was no one to
+tell them of what had happened there before or what was about to occur.
+
+Something had happened--something that is pretty sure to come to all
+bisons, sooner or later. In due season their great bodies reel and fall,
+and the wolves and buzzards are fed. But for such things the wolves
+would all die, and they have an unerring judgment as to the condition of
+an ailing bison. They never attack a healthy bull or cow unless they are
+in great force and the animal is alone.
+
+The migration of bisons from the parching plain to better pasture had
+been going on for some time, and the coyotes had followed it as a matter
+of course. The very day that the old mule halted his runaways at the
+spring for all the water they could hold, there should have been a
+painter on the great ledge which was followed by the trail in the middle
+of the pass. There was a tragedy there worth sketching.
+
+Herd after herd of bisons had gone along that ledge road in clumsy
+safety, but right there now, at the curve of the projecting rock, stood
+one who could go no farther. A fragment of an arrow still sticking
+through one of his hind-legs told what had made him lame in the first
+place, and the marks of wolf-teeth explained why he had grown lamer and
+lamer until all he could do was to turn his back to the rock and stand
+at bay.
+
+Mile after mile of weary walking and painful struggling the poor old
+beast had contended with the enemies now swarming around him; they had
+assailed him always from behind, and they had altogether crippled him.
+His great, terrible head was lowered threateningly, and his deep,
+sonorous bellow was thick with pain and fury. The watching coyotes sat
+down or walked around, barking, yelping, howling, snapping their teeth
+like castanets, sure of a feast to come and hungrily impatient for its
+beginning. One, hungrier or bolder than the rest, made a rush too soon,
+and the quick horn of the old bison caught him. Up, up he went, whirling
+over and over, and his last yelp went down with him into the deep cañon.
+The head of the bison sank again, and his bloodshot eyes grew filmy; he
+was faint and sinking, and he swayed staggeringly to and fro. He gave a
+great lurch forward as his faintness grew upon him, and in an instant he
+seemed to be all but covered with wolves. They attacked every square
+foot of him at the same moment, climbing over each other, yelling,
+tearing, and the bison's time had come. The terror and agony stirred all
+his remaining life for one last, blinded rush. His instinct was to
+"charge" and he made one lumbering plunge. The trail at that point
+afterwards but barely passed the wagon-wheels, and there was no room to
+spare for the bison's last effort. It bore him heavily, helplessly over
+the sickening edge, and half a dozen of clinging coyotes went down with
+him. Hundreds of whirling feet the hunters and the hunted-down bison
+fell together, to be dashed to pieces upon the rocks at the bottom.
+
+A chorus of howls arose from the remaining wolves, but it did not
+express pity or horror. Only for a moment did they seem to be in doubt
+as to what was best to be done. After that it was a wolf-race as to
+which should first get back to the point at which they could safely
+clamber and tumble to the bottom of the pass. Their feast had been
+provided for them, and they ate every part of it, buffalo meat and wolf
+meat alike, with the help of some buzzards, before Two Arrows or any
+other human being entered the cañon to disturb them. Then they followed
+their prospect of further feasting, and it led them on into the grassy
+valley.
+
+The wicked old mule knew nothing of all this. No coyotes annoyed him or
+his command, but not a mouthful to eat did they find until they came
+out where they could see the ancient ruins. At sight of these, hinting
+of human presence, they halted briefly and then sheered away so as not
+to approach too nearly so very unpleasant a suggestion. The bisons had
+led them well, whether or not the mule got the credit of it. Also, there
+was a fair degree of justification of the instinct concerning beaten
+paths. New ones may be better, and somebody must hunt them up all the
+while, but the old roads will do very well for most people until the new
+ones are fairly mapped out. Christopher Columbus had a hard time of it,
+and Captain Cook got himself eaten up at last, after finding ever so
+many new things.
+
+It was a matter of course that the runaways should feel their way
+farther and farther down the valley, and all sorts of happiness seemed
+to be before them. Grass, water, nice weather, no masters, no
+responsibilities, and plenty of good company among themselves. It was a
+time to grow fat, and to think well of the world they lived in.
+
+The wicked old mule had done his work, but he had gained neither name
+nor fame by it. He looked sidewise more slyly, whisked his ropy tail
+more demurely, and kicked his nearest neighbors more viciously than
+ever. Still, all he or they had gained was a vacation; no work to do for
+anybody but themselves, but with winter only a few months ahead and with
+a certainty that wolves, buzzards, coyotes, cougars, grislies, frost,
+snow-storms, and all the other unknown possibilities of the mountain
+country were only holding off for a season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+VISITING
+
+
+Two Arrows was treated to an excellent breakfast the morning after his
+capture. He also saw a white man eat with a knife and fork, and had all
+the sugar he wanted for the first time. It was a wonderful morning, and
+a very brilliant pair of eyes were drinking in its marvels greedily.
+
+Rifles, pistols, and all that sort of thing were familiar enough to the
+young Nez Percé, but he saw new patterns of them and gained tremendous
+notions of the wealth and skill of the pale-faces who could make such
+weapons.
+
+"Father," said Sile, "I wish he could read. He's a bright fellow."
+
+"Show him everything you have with a picture in it."
+
+There was no fear that Two Arrows would try to run away after that
+process began. The printed matter of any sort did not convey to him an
+idea; it was so much mud; it meant nothing whatever. The pictures were
+another thing, and Sile had provided himself well with illustrated
+reading. Two Arrows almost gave up the sullen pride that refused to be
+astonished, and Sile began to understand "sign language." At all events
+he nearly twisted himself out of shape in an effort to explain to his
+captive the nature of ships, cannon, camels, and steam-engines. He felt
+as if he were a sort of missionary. At last Judge Parks himself handed
+Two Arrows a photograph of an Indian chief, given him at one of the
+frontier agencies a few weeks before.
+
+"Ugh! Pawnee!" said Two Arrows.
+
+"I told you so," exclaimed Yellow Pine. "If you showed him dogerrytypes
+of every tribe there is, he'd name 'em at sight. Jedge, it's about time
+we set out. I've got a mount ready for him."
+
+Jonas more fully explained to Two Arrows that a visit of peace was
+planned, and that he was to be marched home again, but the face of the
+young Indian clouded. That was the one thing he stood in mortal dread
+of. He thought of the jeers and derision sure to greet him from all
+other Nez Percé boys when they should see him come home without any
+glory, and he hung back.
+
+"Mount now," shouted Yellow Pine, with a motion towards the animal he
+had selected.
+
+A horse! To ride back, instead of returning tired and on foot. That was
+quite another matter.
+
+"Whoop!" he could not have restrained that yell of relief, and in an
+instant he was in the saddle. He had been used to riding a barebacked
+pony, and that made his present outfit the more splendid. All his vanity
+and ambition came pouring back upon him, and he almost felt as if he had
+captured that squad of pale-faces and was bringing them in as prisoners.
+He dashed forward at once, with Sile on one side, Yellow Pine on the
+other, and the rest following, except a camp-guard of two miners.
+
+Less than an hour later all the Nez Percé band came out under the trees
+to see what was coming.
+
+"Two Arrows!" almost breathlessly exclaimed Na-tee-kah. "Caught some
+pale-faces this time."
+
+"Got horse," said Ha-ha-pah-no.
+
+Long Bear and his warriors did not say a word, for they were all but
+dumb with astonishment from the moment that they recognized the
+returning wanderer. What would not that remarkable boy do next? Had he
+killed anybody? Had he really stolen all those white men, or had they
+stolen him? There he was, anyway, and in a few moments more Yellow Pine
+and Judge Parks had said "How?" to Long Bear and his best men. Indian
+manners required that Two Arrows should be silent before his elders
+until spoken to, but Long Bear almost instantly inquired,
+
+"Where find boy?"
+
+"In camp," said Yellow Pine. "Try to steal horse. Too many pale-face.
+Catch him. All safe. Big thief some day. Boy now."
+
+All of Two Arrows's dream of glory went out of sight before the grim
+smiles with which the Nez Percé warriors heard that explanation. They
+perfectly understood the matter, and that the pale-faces before them
+wished to be good friends. On their part, they were a good deal more
+than willing, for they had much to gain from peace and very little from
+war with mounted riflemen.
+
+"Prisoner?" groaned Na-tee-kah.
+
+"Boy all right," grumbled Ha-ha-pah-no, indignantly. "Find pale-face
+camp anyhow. Go right in. Old brave all asleep. Never find anything. Big
+chief by-and-by."
+
+There was some truth in that view of the matter, and Long Bear made a
+remark that had a little the same sound. At all events Two Arrows was
+permitted to dismount and walk away, while the conference with his
+captors went on. In ten seconds he was exhibiting his little hand-mirror
+to Na-tee-kah and a crowd of other young people, and found his
+importance coming back to him. None of them had ever ventured to creep,
+all alone, into a white man's corral. Not a boy or girl among them had
+such a treasure as the mirror. He had made friends with the pale-faces,
+at all events. In fact, his standing in that community was rising with
+tremendous rapidity, until somehow or other the story of his
+wrestling match with Sile Parks began to be whispered around, and it
+became necessary for Two Arrows to point at Yellow Pine as the great
+brave who had really pinioned him. There was not a Nez Percé in the
+band, old or young, who felt any longing for a grapple with the sinewy,
+big-boned old miner and all would have been right but for the fact that
+Two Arrows had not at once escaped from Sile.
+
+[Illustration: NOT A BOY OR GIRL AMONG THEM HAD SUCH A TREASURE AS THAT
+MIRROR]
+
+A good understanding was easily established between the miners and the
+red men, and it was not long before Sile was off his horse and was going
+around among the young people. He used his eyes as busily as Two Arrows
+had done, but it is to be doubted if he saw as much, even in what there
+was to see. It was not long before Na-tee-kah had as good a
+looking-glass as her brother, and a general distribution of small
+presents sealed the arrangement that the miners were not to be plundered
+by that particular band.
+
+"Now, jedge," said Yellow Pine at last, "it's time we moved. S'pose we
+fetch along that young cub and his sister. Company for Sile. Make the
+old chief feel fine."
+
+Long Bear gave several grunts of assent when spoken to, and once more
+Two Arrows felt as if he were growing very fast indeed.
+
+"We'll go back and move the wagons," said Pine to Sile. "You and your
+young redskin can scout on down the valley. You've got your directions
+'bout finding us. Don't go too fast nor too far. The Indian'll smell any
+danger long before you will. He won't be roped in by anybody in broad
+daylight, I can tell ye."
+
+He did not look like it as he rode proudly away from the village. Jonas
+had mounted Na-tee-kah behind him, but Ha-ha-pah-no was to follow the
+wagons on foot, that the chief's daughter might have somebody to
+superintend her visit. When Ha-ha-pah-no set out in her turn nearly half
+the village went with her uninvited, and it took all the authority of
+Long Bear to keep the other half from keeping them company.
+
+"Come," said Two Arrows to Sile, after a few minutes of silent riding.
+"We go. Ugh! Shoot a heap."
+
+He had picked up more English words, somehow or other, than he had at
+first acknowledged, but Sile found it needful to work the sign language
+pretty industriously for all that.
+
+Na-tee-kah had spent her life in the close retirement of an Indian
+village. She had been housed up among plains and mountains from all the
+world, and knew nothing about it. She had lived in a narrower prison
+than the smallest country village in all the East. The idea of visiting
+a white man's camp and seeing all there was in it made her tremble all
+over. She knew her father and ever so many others would be there in an
+hour or so, and that her wonderful brother had gone on a hunt with the
+son of the pale-face chief, but she was to enter a strange place with
+only white warriors for company. It was an awful thing to do, and she
+could not have done it, nor would Long Bear have consented to it, but
+for something they both saw in the face of old Judge Parks when he
+patted her on the head and said,
+
+"Be my daughter a little while. Make a white girl of her for a week.
+Take good care of her."
+
+Red men have keen eyes for character, and Long Bear understood. So did
+Na-tee-kah, and yet she would have run away and hidden but for her
+curiosity, stirred up by what Two Arrows had told her of the contents of
+that camp and its wagons. An offer to a white girl of a trip to Paris
+might be something like it, but it would not be much more. Her eyes
+danced and her fingers tingled as they drew near, and yet the only thing
+she could see was a couple of commonplace tilted wagons and a lot of
+horses and mules. The moment she was on the ground the old judge came to
+her assistance.
+
+"Now, Na-tee-kah, I'll show you something. Come this way."
+
+She stood as straight as an arrow and walked along courageously, but it
+required all her strength of mind and will to do so. She watched him in
+silence, as he went into and came out of one of those mysterious rolling
+tents full of all unknown riches.
+
+"There, now. That'll keep you busy while we're getting ready to move."
+
+She held out both her hands, and when Ha-ha-pah-no at last put her own
+hand upon her shoulder and said "Ugh!" Na-tee-kah started as if she had
+been waked from a dream. She had been looking at pictures that told her
+of another world.
+
+"Heap lie," said Ha-ha-pah-no. "Pale-face tell 'em. Make lie about
+squaw. There!"
+
+It was a picture of several ladies in evening dress, and Na-tee-kah had
+been looking at it for five minutes. No such woman as those could
+possibly be, nor could any human beings get themselves up so
+wonderfully. It was all a lie, and any intelligent squaw could detect
+the fraud at a glance.
+
+Na-tee-kah drew a long breath that sounded like a sigh, and just then
+the shout of Yellow Pine announced that all was ready for a move.
+
+"We'll reach that mine to-morrow night, jedge, if we're lively.
+Everything's goin' prime now."
+
+With or without an invitation the relatives of Na-tee-kah trudged along
+with the wagons mile after mile, and Long Bear gained an extra pound of
+tobacco by sticking to Yellow Pine until the train halted at noon.
+
+Ha-ha-pah-no scolded Na-tee-kah pretty nearly all the way for not
+knowing more about pale-faces, but she broke down at the noon camp-fire.
+She undertook to play cook, and in half a minute Jonas discovered that
+she did not know how to make coffee.
+
+"Wouldn't you have b'iled a black soup?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Poor old squaw!" said Ha-ha-pah-no. "Know all about him. Drink some
+once; bitter. Put sweet in. Stir him up, so."
+
+"Ugh!" said Na-tee-kah. "Know so much. Ask Two Arrows when he come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+MORE FUN
+
+
+Sile Parks and Two Arrows had the whole valley before them and all the
+mountains and valleys beyond, and one knew as much about them as did the
+other. Neither had ever been just there before, and yet the young Nez
+Percé was at home, and Sile was in a new country. Sile could ride well
+and he could shoot well, but here at his side was a born hunter. With
+all sorts of descriptive signs he asked him,
+
+"Did you ever kill a deer?"
+
+"Ugh! heap deer. Heap bear. Heap buffalo. Big heap."
+
+And then all the pride of Two Arrows came to help him explain that he
+had killed a cougar all alone, and a big-horn and a grisly. By the time
+he had succeeded in doing so Sile regarded him as a red-skinned wonder,
+but had so interpreted some of his signs as to include a big snake, a
+land-turtle, and a kangaroo in the list of asserted victories. It gave
+him some doubts as to the others, for he said to himself,
+
+"No rabbit can jump as far as he says that thing did. There are no
+kangaroos here, and they have no horns. I give it up. Maybe he is
+lying, but he doesn't look so."
+
+Two Arrows was boasting quite truthfully, and the trouble was with
+Sile's translation.
+
+"Ugh! look. Rifle--"
+
+Sile's eyes followed the pointing finger in vain for a moment. At first
+he saw nothing but a clump of sumach bushes, but for once he asked no
+questions. What could be among them? One seemed to move a little. Could
+it be possible? the horns of a buck!
+
+"Maybe I can hit him. I've heard of such a thing. I'll aim below them;
+his body is there somewhere."
+
+Two Arrows could have told him just how that deer was standing, but
+Sile's guess-work was pretty good. He let his rifle-muzzle sink on a
+line with one of those antlers, and had lowered it a little too much
+when he pulled the trigger. The kicking of the rifle made the aim a good
+one, for the sharp report was answered by a great bound from the cover
+of the sumachs, and in an instant a mortally-wounded buck was dashing
+across the open, with One-eye close at his heels.
+
+"Ugh! got him," said Two Arrows. "Heap shoot. Bow not so good."
+
+Sile had offered to lend him a rifle at starting, but Two Arrows had
+prudently refused to disgrace himself. He had never owned one and did
+not care to show his lack of skill.
+
+That was a fine dash after One-eye and the wounded buck, but it was a
+short one. The bullet had done its work so thoroughly that there was
+little trouble left for the dog when he seized his victim's throat to
+pull him down.
+
+There had been some hunting done by the mining party on their long
+journey, but Sile could have told Two Arrows if he had chosen to do so,
+that here lay the first deer he had ever killed. He could also have told
+him that it appeared to be the largest, fattest, finest, most miraculous
+buck that anybody in the world had ever killed; as it really was even
+Two Arrows spoke well of the buck and thought well of the shot which had
+brought it down.
+
+"If I knew where to find our train I'd take it right in," said Sile, as
+they hoisted the buck to his own saddle. "I'd just as lief walk."
+
+"Find him," said Two Arrows, understanding the searching look Sile gave
+towards the mountains. "Go so. Come. Get on horse; ride."
+
+He took the lead at once, but it seemed to Sile that he was going in the
+wrong direction. He was not at all aware that his friend had skilfully
+directed their hunt on a line nearly parallel, at no great distance,
+from that which the train must follow. He was therefore doubly
+astonished when a brief ride brought them within sight of the
+wagon-tilts. They had halted, and Sile had double comfort: he could
+show his father his first deer and he could get a hot dinner, for
+Ha-ha-pah-no could do very well with a steak if not with coffee.
+
+"Which of you killed the deer?" asked the judge, as they rode in.
+
+Sile was silent long enough for Two Arrows to point at him and remark,
+
+"Heap shoot."
+
+"So I did, father, but he pointed him out. I'd never have seen him if
+I'd been alone."
+
+"Jest so," said Yellow Pine. "There isn't anything else on the earth
+like the eyesight of an Indian. I've had 'em sight game more'n once that
+I'd ha' missed sure."
+
+It puzzled Na-tee-kah somewhat that anybody else should have won
+anything while her wonderful brother was near by, but Ha-ha-pah-no
+relieved her by remarking,
+
+"Ugh! The red-head kill deer. Two Arrows show him how. Good."
+
+One of the miners had ridden out from the line of march and returned
+with another deer, so that fresh venison was plentiful in the camp. Two
+Arrows felt no longing for any more hunting that day, and he bluntly
+said so. It was ten times more to his liking to ride along with the
+train and keep his eyes busy. He was studying white men, and all the
+world knows what a curious study they are. One white boy was also
+studying him and his sister, and could not understand them at all.
+Sile's eyes and thoughts ran about over everything he heard or saw
+until he almost had a headache.
+
+"Tell you what, father," he said to the judge, "when we go into camp
+again I'm going to show them my box."
+
+"It's a curiosity box. Show it to them."
+
+The road was necessarily somewhat rough, and wagoning was slow work, and
+before sunset a place was chosen for an all-night camp. Then came Sile's
+experiment. He hauled a stoutly-made, leather-covered trunk out of one
+of the wagons, before the eyes of Two Arrows and Na-tee-kah, and it was
+instantly evident that neither had ever seen one, but that both
+understood its use. He unstrapped it, but it did not open, and he made
+them try it. Lock and key were mysteries they had no thought of, and
+they almost started back with surprise when Sile pushed a thin bit of
+steel into one side of that contrivance and all the upper part of it
+could be tipped right over.
+
+Sile's "box" would have been first-rate rummaging for any boy of his
+acquaintance, and it was a mine of wonders to the two young savages. He
+had put into it some things which could hardly be useful to him, even if
+he should be cast away upon a mountain, as Robinson Crusoe was upon an
+island, and it was so much the better fun for Two Arrows and Na-tee-kah.
+The fishing-hooks, lines, reel, etc., made the eyes of the former fairly
+dance, and Sile brought out a joint-rod and put it together, with a
+reel on, to show him how the machine worked. Two Arrows grew thoughtful
+over that affair.
+
+"Big fish break him."
+
+"No. Show you about that to-morrow morning."
+
+"Ugh! ugh!" suddenly exclaimed Ha-ha-pah-no. "Red-head got squaw? Boy!"
+
+He did look young to be married, but she was pointing straight at a
+brush and comb and some other articles which, to her notion, did not
+belong in the treasury of a young warrior. Sile at once explained that
+he used them himself, but there were several brushes and combs, and she
+added,
+
+"Ugh! Beat squaw. Take 'em away from her. What she do?"
+
+"Try it on," said Sile, handing a brush and comb to Na-tee-kah, and a
+peal of laughter announced the pleasure of the two Indian ladies, old
+and young. Even Two Arrows dropped a "spoon-hook" to take an interest in
+that proceeding.
+
+"Come," said Ha-ha-pah-no, with a long string of merry gutturals of
+explanation that she had seen a white lady at one of the forts putting
+up the hair of another. She herself could do it, and in twenty seconds
+more there was a yell from Na-tee-kah and a tooth out of the comb.
+
+"Let me show you," said Sile, and from that moment there was not one
+sound from the lips of Na-tee-kah. Whether she was hurt or not nobody
+knew, for if the comb had extracted hair by the handful she would not
+have whimpered. Ha-ha-pah-no insisted on having her hair combed by
+Na-tee-kah. She must know how now, it was evident, and she did, for the
+comb lost another tooth in the very first tangles of Ha-ha-pah-no's
+hair.
+
+"That's fun," said Yellow Pine. "Jest look at them critters. That there
+squaw'll crack that lookin'-glass, twistin' her face, 'fore her combin'
+is done."
+
+She stood it pretty well, but the other contents of the box had less
+interest now. She and Na-tee-kah preferred to go on with the brush and
+comb. Even Two Arrows looked at them so enviously that Sile told him the
+white chiefs did comb their hair. It was enough. Squaws were made to
+serve braves, and they were both commanded to take charge of his long,
+bushy, and decidedly tangled barbering. Not for his life would he have
+uttered a cry of pain, but he made up his mind that a pale-face can
+endure a great deal before they got through with him.
+
+Supper had to be eaten, and sharp appetites helped them to get away long
+enough for that duty, but then the brush and comb began again under
+Sile's instruction.
+
+"That there comb won't last long," said Yellow Pine. "Tell 'em to put
+on some grease, Sile, and some ribbons. Ribbons, Sile, and some beads,
+and--"
+
+"And some red flannel," said Jonas, "and some tinware."
+
+"I'd forgotten all about that," exclaimed Sile, springing up.
+
+In a few moments his visitors were in a new state of excitement, for
+they were tying up their now glossy locks with brilliant ribbons and
+strips of gay cloth. To these were added some of the brilliant
+white-metal ornaments that pass for silver among the very youngest
+pale-face children. Two Arrows put on his full share of all that was
+offered and became a very gay-looking young Indian. There was no danger
+that he would stand on his head and spoil his ribbons, but he felt
+almost too proud to stand on his feet. He felt more and more sure that
+the world did not contain quite such another hero, and longed for the
+presence of his whole band, and of his entire tribe, and of several
+other tribes, that he might walk up and down in front of them and be
+admired. No white boy with a new stovepipe hat and a pair of yellow kid
+gloves ever wanted to walk through so many streets or past quite so many
+"boarding-schools" as did Two Arrows--only that his showing-off places
+were such as he was best acquainted with.
+
+Na-tee-kah was more quiet than even Ha-ha-pah-no, for that highly
+respectable squaw had done up her head remarkably.
+
+"All she wants to finish it off is two tin dippers and a set of
+sleigh-bells. I saw a squaw do that once. There's no telling what they
+won't put on. But I say, jedge, that there littler one is a born lady,
+and she's right down good-lookin' too. All she needs is good dressin'
+and she'd kind o' shine."
+
+There was not a doubt of it, and her highly-colored ribbons had been put
+on with better taste than those of Ha-ha-pah-no, and they showed to good
+advantage her clear, dark complexion, brilliant eyes, and regular
+features. Old Long Bear had a right to be proud of both his children.
+
+It was grand fun, but there came an end to it at last. Two Arrows went
+out to share with Sile his camp-watch, and Ha-ha-pah-no and Na-tee-kah
+were shown to a small tent which had been pitched for them. It was
+something of a trial to take all that finery away from the admiring
+blaze of the camp-fire and carry it into the dark hiding-place of that
+tent, but it had to be done. At all events they could rise early in the
+morning and comb their hair again and arrange the ribbons and things in
+some other way.
+
+Na-tee-kah's new world was opening to her wonderfully, and she lay for a
+long time wide awake, staring into the darkness and trying to imagine
+pale-face squaws and their ways of doing up their hair and painting
+themselves and putting on whole heaps of blankets of the most striking
+colors and patterns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TWO WAR-PARTIES
+
+
+That was a time of uncommon interest and excitement to the entire Nez
+Percé hunting village. They had plenty to eat and to drink, and some of
+them had received presents, and the prospect ahead seemed to brighten a
+little. By nightfall all the warriors were returned from accompanying
+the mining party, and it was a time for a grand smoke. Some of them had
+begged Yellow Pine for "fire-water," but not a drop had been obtained.
+Instead of it they had been informed,
+
+"We're not jest that kind of white men. There isn't a pint of
+tangle-foot in this 'ere outfit. Ef I want to murder a feller I'll take
+a rifle to him and do the job clean. I won't go around the bush and
+massacre him with a whiskey-jug."
+
+The red men understood perfectly well that there was no "fire-water,"
+but that was all they gathered. Plenty of smoking tobacco they did
+obtain, and it was a grand addition to the dignity of their "council,"
+if every half-naked brave with a pipe in his mouth had a right to
+consider himself a councillor. They all smoked, and they all wondered
+what it was best to do next, and they all said so, and every brave among
+them regretted that it was out of the question for them to acquire
+possession of the quadrupeds ridden and driven by Judge Parks and his
+men. The Big Tongue and a few of the younger braves even went so far as
+to "talk war," but the wiser heads merely grunted at the suggestions
+volunteered. The Big Tongue had much to say to the smokers nearest him
+concerning a pale-face warrior whose scalp was among his own treasures.
+Ha-ha-pah-no was not there to make any sly remarks as to how he actually
+obtained such a trophy as that and some others on which his reputation
+as a warrior mainly rested. They sat up until they had smoked all the
+wisdom out of several pipes of tobacco to each warrior, but did not seem
+to be any nearer a conclusion. The camp was under the special charge of
+One-eye, but that dog was becoming quiet and solemn. His especial master
+had departed, he knew not whither. All the bones in camp now belonged to
+him, and he had no time to bury so much as one of them. He was not fond
+of tobacco, and as soon as the smoking began he walked out of camp to
+patrol the edge of the woods and to keep all the eye left him on duty
+against possible intruders. He had no faith in a country which was
+evidently infested by pale-faces.
+
+If he had known more about that valley and the region into which it
+led, he would have had an even worse opinion of it. The fact that it
+contained a large stream of water had already suggested many things to
+the experienced mind of Long Bear. All such water, he well knew, kept on
+running, no matter what might be its crooks and turnings. If he and his
+braves could have followed that stream far enough while they were
+smoking and talking over plans, they might have reached a place where it
+turned a corner of the mountains and was joined by another and larger
+stream. The two in partnership were able to float a canoe. There was no
+canoe afloat there, but there was something yet more important away on
+down, a pretty long way, below the fork made by the junction of the two
+streams. There was a camp occupied by red warriors only, without one
+squaw to be seen in it, and it was therefore the camp of a "war-party."
+It was accompanied by a large drove of ponies, horses, and mules, and
+some of these had saddles and others carried packs. These were signs
+that the war-party had been successful and that pale-faces had been the
+sufferers. Every quadruped visible wore an air of being more or less
+fatigued, in token of having been driven or ridden both fast and far.
+From this it might have been gathered that these red men, however
+successful had been their expedition, believed or feared that they were
+followed by somebody whom they preferred to get away from. All these
+signs told the exact truth; it was also true that some pains had been
+taken to discover whether or not the supposed pursuit continued.
+
+At the very hour when One-eye was making the best use he could of the
+bright moonshine in front of his own camp, and knew nothing at all about
+this other, a tall man stood in the deep shadow of a pine-tree, miles
+and miles down stream from the resting-place of the war-party. The
+bridle of a horse hung over his right arm, but the animal stood as
+motionless as did his master, and both were intently watching a dark
+shape that rode nearer and could be seen more and more clearly, and that
+paused at last upon the river-bank within thirty yards. Just as it did
+so there came from under the shadow of the pine-tree a flash and a sharp
+report, and all the upper part of the dark shape on the bank fell
+suddenly to the earth, uttering a loud, fierce yell.
+
+"Got him!" was shouted from under the pine-tree, and the man walked out,
+leading his horse, while instantly there could be heard the sound of
+galloping hoofs beyond him. In a minute or so more a stern, hoarse voice
+rang out.
+
+"Halt! What is it, Garry?"
+
+"Got him, captain. 'Nother of them 'Paches. He won't carry back no news.
+Dead as a mackerel. Reckon they can't be far away now."
+
+"We've taken pretty good care of their scouts, anyhow."
+
+"Jest so many the less to fight when we come up with 'em. They'll
+outnumber us bad enough, I reckon, best we can make of it."
+
+"Back to camp, Garry. Corporal Peters, take the same post, with two men.
+There may be more of them."
+
+"All right, captain."
+
+There was a little more talking done, but these seemed to be a somewhat
+quiet set of men. There were six of them besides the captain. They were
+all dressed in blue, and wore brass buttons and carried short-barrelled
+carbines and sabres. A good look at them would have recalled to the mind
+of Two Arrows all the arguments he had ever heard as to the wisdom of
+keeping the peace with the pale-faces. When they reached the camp, after
+"changing the guard" at Garry's river-side post, it was easy to see that
+their entire force consisted of several times as many men of the same
+sort. Every man was on his feet, wide awake and waiting for orders. One
+squad of five stood with each man's hand upon the bridle of a saddled
+horse, ready to mount, just as the first squad must have been, when it
+heard the warning report of Garry's carbine. A company of United States
+cavalry, veteran Indian fighters, following a "hot trail," keeps itself
+wonderfully ready for action. It is not easy to take such men by
+surprise. Now, however, at the word of command, all was instantly quiet
+again. The actual meaning of the alarm was rapidly told from man to man,
+and several remarked:
+
+"Good for Garry! We'll catch 'em yet."
+
+All who had a right to go to sleep, did so as unconcernedly as if they
+had been in a hotel. On the whole, it looked as if something else than
+peace were on its way into the valley where One-eye was keeping watch
+for the smokers. The last man to lie down was the captain, and one of
+the wide-awake squad nodded at him and said to another,
+
+"If there was forty alarms 'fore sun-up, old Grover'd be the first man
+to turn out every time."
+
+"Not much reg'lation 'bout him."
+
+"But there's lots of fight."
+
+"He can get more hard work out of men and hosses, and he can do more
+himself, and he can sleep less, and say less about it all, than any
+other captain I ever served under."
+
+That, therefore, was the kind of soldiers from whom the Apaches were
+wisely trying to get away, and Garry's carbine had destroyed their
+prospect of learning how very near he and his might be. It looked very
+much as if two days more of hard riding would bring them into a sort of
+trap, with the mountains before and the cavalry behind. Still, even
+then, there would be the pass, if they knew where to find it. There
+also were One-eye and all of his men and Sile Parks and his party; and
+the wicked old mule, too, with his command, was in the valley somewhere.
+Only a few days earlier the entire sweep of forest and "open and
+mountain-side" had been unoccupied by anything more dangerous or more
+interesting than wild game and the wild animals that fed on it. It is
+very curious how suddenly immigrants will sometimes pour into a new
+country if there is a good trail pointing out the way.
+
+The spot chosen by Yellow Pine for the camp of the mining party was by a
+dancing little brook which came down from the mountain to the right of
+them, and the path by which they travelled that day had barely kept them
+outside of the rocky slopes. Some coyotes came prowling around, to yelp
+over the faint smell of roasted meat that floated out to them from the
+camp-fires. Once during the night the cry of a wandering cougar came
+wailing through the silence and was followed by that of a horned owl who
+had noiselessly flapped near enough to blink his great eyes at the
+blaze. For all that, it was the loneliest kind of a place, and the hours
+went by until sunrise without the smallest real disturbance or hint of
+perils to come.
+
+Judge Parks himself was on the watch in the first gray of dawn, and the
+camp was dim enough even after there were rosy tints upon the distant
+mountain summits. He stood gazing at these and leaning upon his rifle,
+when Yellow Pine walked out to take his customary survey of matters.
+
+"We're going to have a fine day, jedge."
+
+"Splendid weather. Pine, just think of all this magnificent country as
+it will be when it's settled. Farms, towns, villages, mines, railways,
+factories--"
+
+"There won't be any game, then, or any red Indians, either."
+
+"There isn't a finer country in all the world. The new time is coming,
+Pine."
+
+"Of course it is. Our mine's coming first thing. We'll get there 'fore
+sundown. Wish I knew what else was coming."
+
+"Afraid of anything?"
+
+"Got a curious feeling in my back. Always have it when there's something
+up. It's as much like the rheumatiz as it is like anything."
+
+"Guess that's what it is, then."
+
+"I dunno 'bout that. I've had all sorts of things happen when I had this
+'ere feeling onto me."
+
+"Exactly, Pine. I've had dinner happen to me a good many times just when
+I had a sort of feeling it was coming. Soon as I got right down hungry I
+knew it was a sure sign. I say, look at those boys."
+
+"Going a-fishing. I'd call it--Well, it's a good thing for 'em to do.
+They can't miss bringing in a good string. Sile, see here."
+
+"Halloo!"
+
+"Get back with some for breakfast if you can. We'll be right here till
+the critters have done feeding. Catch a heap."
+
+"All right," shouted Sile. "He says the water's full of 'em."
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"Sile," said his father, "don't throw away your time on fly-fishing. Use
+bait, and pull 'em right in. They'll bite."
+
+"I'm going to spoon for 'em. Can't find any bait."
+
+"Never mind, jedge," said Pine. "I've seen trout in some of these
+mountain streams jump for a bare hook quick as it tetched the water.
+There's too many on 'em, and they get the hungriest kind."
+
+"They won't mind much what they jump at, that's sure. I must say I'd
+like some for breakfast, though."
+
+Yellow Pine and the judge had other matters on hand, and the latter had
+a short nap to take, after his "watch." The animals had to be cared for,
+moreover, before any mere human being had a right to be fed.
+
+The first noise that was made in camp brought Na-tee-kah and
+Ha-ha-pah-no out of their tent, comb and brush in hand. They both made
+sure of their ribbons and that all was in order before they had a word
+to say to anybody. It could not be denied that they were a very bright
+looking and highly ornamented pair, Ha-ha-pah-no being perhaps a little
+ahead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WONDERFUL FISHING
+
+
+There had been a good deal of discussion of the fishing question between
+the two young friends, for Two Arrows knew nothing of the powers of a
+"spoon-hook." Sile had them of several sizes, and Two Arrows admitted to
+himself that anything so very bright and pretty must have special
+effectiveness. Any of those spoons was brilliant enough to have been
+worn in the hat of a great chief, but the doubt remaining was as to what
+the trout would think of them. The gaudy assortment of artificial flies
+Two Arrows quite turned up his nose at. The fish of the western
+mountains were not in the habit of biting at such things, and could not
+be taught to do so. As to the hooks, however, large and small, anybody
+could see their superiority over such as he was accustomed to using, and
+the lines were elegant. Sile provided him with a rod, and when he
+marched away with it he felt a strong desire to carry it to and through
+his own camp, that everybody he knew might see what an extraordinary
+thing he was doing. No Nez Percé boy that he had ever heard of had been
+able to go a-fishing with a joint-rod and a spoon-hook.
+
+They had but a mile or so to walk in order to reach the nearest bend of
+the little river, and they startled more than one gang of deer on the
+way. Sile had his rifle and Two Arrows had his bow, but the morning had
+been given up to fish, and they stuck to their original purpose in spite
+of all temptation. On the bank of the stream they paused for a moment
+and took a survey of the situation. The water was not more than fifty
+yards wide, and did not seem to be deep, but it ran with rippling
+swiftness.
+
+"That'll do," said Sile. "It's plenty strong enough to carry a spoon.
+You won't have to skitter it a bit."
+
+"Ugh! Heap fish," said Two Arrows, but he did not understand Sile's
+remark and wondered what was to come next. During all his life thus far
+he had never thought of the pale-faces as fishermen, or that they really
+knew anything valuable about such matters. The contents of Sile's box
+had staggered him, and now he looked on in silence while the "Red-head"
+(as Ha-ha-pah-no had named him) put his rod together, setting the reel
+firmly in its socket, and then deftly fitted on the spoon-hook with its
+fine wire "snell." Sile's father was an enthusiastic fisherman and had
+given his son more than a little good schooling. Up went the rod, and
+the line swing lightly back for a second, and then, with a perfect cast,
+the brilliant "spoon" flew over the water and alighted among the swift
+ripples. The current caught it and whirled it away, the polished silver
+glittering and dancing near the surface, but it was visible only for an
+instant. There came a rush and a plunge, and away out of the water
+sprang a splendid trout with Sile's hook fastened firmly in his too
+hasty jaw.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Sile. "Got him!"
+
+"Ugh! Good," said Two Arrows. "Break!"
+
+"No, he won't break any line. See!"
+
+Two Arrows did see a great deal in a very few moments. The tough rod
+bent, and Sile gave a little line at first; but the trout made an
+up-stream rush and was guided to the shore. He was lying on the grass,
+quietly enough, just after that. So was another and another, and now Two
+Arrows had mastered the idea and was at work with energy. It surprised
+Sile to see how perfectly his red friend could handle his new tools, but
+it was well that the rod was a stout one, for the reel and its uses were
+as yet an enigma. It was exciting sport, for there was hardly any
+waiting for bites whatever. The trout were on the lookout for their
+breakfasts, and nobody had ever before offered them such attractive
+little silvery fish as they now saw, every now and then struggling
+through the water, all ready to be seized upon.
+
+It was a great lesson to Two Arrows, and it promised a capital breakfast
+to the mining party.
+
+"Guess we've got enough," said Sile at last. "We'd better hurry back to
+camp."
+
+At that moment a strange and unexpected sound came to his ears from some
+point lower down the stream, and Two Arrows came near to dropping his
+rod into the water.
+
+"Ugh! Catch now!"
+
+"Yes, you've caught your fish, but what's that? It sounds for all the
+world like a mule braying."
+
+"Two Arrows know him. Heap bad mule. Nez Percé lose all pony. Find 'em
+now. Red-head come?"
+
+Sile looked with admiration upon the fiercely excited face of the young
+Nez Percé. The dark eyes fairly glittered with pleasure and expectation,
+and he was striving, with all the words and signs he was master of, to
+convey an idea of the loss his band had sustained, and now once more,
+and more sonorously, the "morning bugle" of a mule in command of
+something came ringing up the river.
+
+"I'll string the trout," said Sile, as he began to do so, "then I'll go
+with you. It'll be grand if we can really catch them."
+
+"Two Arrows catch 'em all, heap time. Get one, get all tribe."
+
+"Wish we were mounted. Better go to camp and get some horses."
+
+"Ugh! No wait. Find now."
+
+There was no such thing as resisting his eager urgency, and Sile
+himself began to get excited. The trout made two magnificent "strings,"
+but were pretty heavy to carry, and it was decided to hang them and the
+two rods upon the limb of a tree until a visit should have been paid to
+the owner of that bray. All this was quickly attended to, and then the
+two fishermen were instantly changed into pony-hunters.
+
+Not even his adventure with the grisly, or his timely success with the
+two bisons when his people were starving, had so aroused the ambition of
+Two Arrows. The future fortunes of his entire band seemed to him to
+depend once more upon his own individual good-conduct. Sile thought he
+had never seen so proud looking a human being.
+
+The speckled beauties from the river swung heavily from the high but
+bending branch as the two boys hurried away, but these were almost
+forgotten by both in the course of a few minutes. They did not have to
+follow far the windings of the stream before Two Arrows, who was
+somewhat in the advance, dodged behind a tree and beckoned eagerly to
+Sile:
+
+"Ugh! Look! Pony!"
+
+Just beyond him was a grassy glade glistening with morning dew, and
+scattered over it was the entire command of the wicked old mule, the
+wealth and the comfort together of the Nez Percé pony-riders. To have
+been seen by them prematurely would have been a pretty sure way of
+stampeding them again, and the occasion called for prudence and good
+management. Some of the animals still had their long hide lariats
+hanging and dragging from their necks and some had not, but Two Arrows
+noted one of the former, a very good-looking pony, feeding at no great
+distance from a clump of hazel and willows beyond him. He made Sile
+understand his purpose of getting into that cover, and then all that
+Sile had to do was to watch him. Down dropped the young Nez Percé, and
+from that moment there was little of him to be seen, except when his
+gayly ribboned head now and then showed itself, peering over the wet,
+luxuriant grass and weeds. Then a slight movement among the willows told
+of his safe arrival, and still the runaways were feeding quietly,
+unaware of the nearness of human beings or other enemies. Sile peered
+from behind his tree and watched the movements of the particular pony
+his friend had pointed out. He was a brisk sort of fellow, and he was
+working at his breakfast busily. Nearer and nearer he fed his way
+towards a projecting growth of the hazel-bushes and Sile perceived a
+promising shake in one of these. There was something more than a shake
+hidden by them, for in about one minute more a light, lithe, graceful
+human form sprang suddenly out. A quick grasp at the trailing lariat, a
+rapid twist of a loop of it around the animal's face, a buoyant leap,
+and Two Arrows was a mounted Indian once more. Every beast of the
+wicked old mule's startled command was familiar with the tones of the
+whoop of triumph which called them all away from their grass and their
+freedom. They had many a time been driven in from other pastures by that
+particular yell, and it seemed now as if each of them took a swift look
+around him and listened for the expected voice of One-eye. It should
+naturally have followed that whoop. After that it was as if they had
+only been waiting for somebody to come, and wished to say as much. Their
+commander put out his head and brayed lustily, and so did all the other
+mules, but the ponies took the matter more soberly. Whether or not they
+had already begun to discover warning signs of cougars, wolves, grislies
+and other insecurities of their situation, they actually felt better to
+be once more in the company of a human being whom they knew. Sile
+wondered greatly to see how readily the whole drove obeyed the shouts of
+Two Arrows, and permitted themselves to be gathered and driven. He
+refused the invitation given him to mount one of the ponies, for he had
+doubts of his success in managing it barebacked and with such a
+halter-bridle. He explained as well as he could that he preferred to
+carry the fish and the rods and the news to his own camp, leaving Two
+Arrows to handle his captives as best he could. That was just what Two
+Arrows wanted. He was almost afraid lest the pale-faces should send him
+some help and so take from him part of the glory of his fresh
+achievement. There was little danger of that, as Sile was soon to
+discover. He hurried back after his fish in a state of such excitement
+that he very nearly forgot that he was in a new country. He would have
+forgotten it more completely if it had not been for something he heard
+as he drew nearer the spot where he had left his speckled game.
+
+"What's that?" he suddenly exclaimed, stopping short and listening.
+"What's all that growling? I never heard a bear, but it might be one."
+
+So it might be, indeed, in a country where they were so plentiful, but
+it was not a grisly this time. It was only a common black bear, very
+fond of fish, and tremendously disgusted at the failure of his efforts
+to get hold of some which had plainly been caught and left expressly for
+him. Standing upon his hind-feet, and springing up as far as he was
+able, his paws just reached the end of the longest string of trout and
+set it a swinging. Two Arrows had wisely insisted upon bending down a
+branch and hanging the fish pretty high, Indian fashion, and Sile now
+saw the reason of it.
+
+"He'd bring 'em all down as it is if I should let him take his time to
+it. What shall I do now? Oh, but ain't I glad I brought along my
+rifle!"
+
+He was glad of it, very; but when he raised it in the direction of that
+bear the sight seemed to dance in all directions, and he could not get a
+good aim, short as was the distance.
+
+Sile had the "buck ague."
+
+Even old hunters sometimes find their nerves playing tricks on them. It
+would not do to miss a shot then and there, and Sile lowered his rifle.
+
+"I'll try a rest and see about this thing. I must hit that bear in the
+head the first time, sure." He stepped behind a tree and put his rifle
+through the crotch of a projecting branch. That tree had no shake in it;
+and the barrel grew steady. "He is getting up on his hind-feet again.
+Now for him."
+
+The bear poised himself, with uplifted head, and, just as he lifted his
+paw for another scratch at the fish, Sile pulled the trigger.
+
+The range was very short, the rest was a good one, the sight was quick
+but careful, and the bit of lead went straight to its intended place
+under the ear of that black bear. He would need no more fish from that
+time forth, and he pitched heavily forward upon the ground.
+
+"Wait a moment, Sile! Never run in on a b'ar till yer sure of him.
+Reckon he's dead, though. Stand where you are, my boy!"
+
+"Why, father! Yellow Pine! You here? I never expected to see you."
+
+"Well, my son," said the judge, "we thought we'd come over and see what
+luck you were having. Where's Two Arrows?"
+
+"We watched ye jest a moment," said Pine. "Allers take sight from a rest
+if you can get one. You did that thing fine. There's the making of a
+prime good shot in ye."
+
+"I shook all over at first," said Sile, walking a little nearer the
+bear.
+
+"Buck ager. I've had it. He won't come to. If he does it's no matter,
+now we've got here. I'll come back after breakfast with a hoss and fetch
+him in. Where's the redskin?"
+
+Sile rapidly explained the cause of his delay in getting back to camp;
+but what he did not know or explain was the fact that the Nez Percés had
+had no idea that their drove of lost ponies had wandered into that
+valley.
+
+"Glad they've got 'em," said Yellow Pine. "Every hoof of ourn'll be
+safer from this time on, treaty or no treaty, good Indians or bad."
+
+"Would they really steal from us, after all?" asked Sile, soberly.
+
+"Steal hosses? Well, now, that isn't jest the way it looks to them.
+They're brought up to it. All hoss-flesh is fair game to a plains
+redskin. The more they have of their own, the easier it is to get 'em to
+keep their hands off from them that you have and to make believe good.
+These 'ere Nez Percés ain't a bad lot. Hope we won't run afoul of any
+that's worse than they are, and more of 'em."
+
+Sile was proud of his fish, and tenfold prouder of his bear, but the
+proudest person in the mining-camp that morning was Na-tee-kah. Her
+wonderful brother had earned some more glory. The next proudest being
+was probably Ha-ha-pah-no, and she asked, several times in succession,
+of both herself and Na-tee-kah, and without any satisfactory answer,
+
+"What Big Tongue say, now? Tell how he caught pony?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A FULL CORRAL
+
+
+Two arrows was a born horseman. About the earliest memory he had was of
+riding rather than walking. The pony he was now on was one which had
+carried him many a time. As soon as he had cut and trimmed a very long
+and serviceable tree-branch all the other ponies and the mules perfectly
+understood what it was for.
+
+He was in a serious hurry. It was the most important affair of his life.
+So far as he could see, the only ponies now missing from the drove were
+the ones which had not been stampeded, but had remained in camp to be
+eaten. All the rest had been rescued and kept in good order by the
+genius and generalship of the wicked old mule. Two Arrows could but wish
+that a dozen or so of the best dogs had been stampeded at the same time.
+He rode busily hither and thither, shouting vigorously and lashing his
+charges away from every tuft of grass they lingered over. He knew
+exactly where to find his people, and he meant to find them quickly. The
+distance was nearly the same that had been travelled the day before by
+the mining party, but the loaded wagons had taken more time upon it
+than loose ponies would, followed by an excited boy with a long "gad."
+
+The fact that he had eaten no breakfast was one which hardly occurred to
+Two Arrows, in his eager determination to get his runaways home in the
+shortest possible order. Once they were headed in the right direction
+there was but little difficulty in guiding them rightly, and now the old
+mule took his accustomed place in the advance. It was as if he had
+repented and was even willing to get some credit for leading his
+reformed command in the way they should go.
+
+The Nez Percé community had all eaten a good breakfast that morning;
+there had been no vegetables, to be sure, but not a soul had missed
+them. With plenty of fish and fresh meat they had all that red Indians
+expect to be provided with, and they asked for no more. Their kind of
+human life can be kept a-going upon a very narrow diet. The laziest
+brave in camp was well fed, but for all that there was a general air of
+dejection and despondency. Long Bear himself sat in front of his lodge,
+cross-legged and moody, all the forenoon: his children were away from
+him, on a visit to the pale-faces; his ponies were away upon another
+visit, he could not guess with whom; his dogs, with the solitary
+exception of One-eye, had all visited the camp-kettles. His only
+remaining consolation seemed to be his pipe, and he was rapidly and
+extravagantly using up all the tobacco he had obtained from Yellow Pine.
+The shadow of the mighty maple near him grew shorter until it had little
+more left to lose and could almost announce the arrival of midday. Just
+then there arose, at the edge of the woods, a long, ear-piercing howl,
+followed by such a volley of yelps and barking as can only be fired off
+by a very remarkable dog. One-eye was informing the camp that something
+great was drawing near, and was doing his best to make up for the
+absence of the other dogs.
+
+The Nez Percé warriors went for their weapons instinctively but somewhat
+listlessly, until they heard a tremendous whoop join in with the barking
+of One-eye and recognized the powerful voice of the Big Tongue. He could
+out-whoop any other brave he knew of, and he was now doing his best. He
+had been strolling out towards the open country when One-eye began, and
+had found and seized upon a sudden heap of unexpected glory.
+
+Away in advance of his command, farther and farther, had wisely trotted
+the long-legged, long-eared, long-absent wicked old mule. Not another
+quadruped was in sight when One-eye gave the alarm. The Big Tongue
+bounded forward as if he were charging upon a beaten enemy, and the mule
+did but whinny affectionately when he caught the remains of the lariat
+at the place where it had been gnawed asunder, and sprang triumphantly
+upon the back of the recaptured mule.
+
+Whoop followed whoop as the happy warrior rode his prize towards the
+camp, and the entire band, squaws and children included, poured out
+under the trees to rejoice that they now had a mule as well as a dog.
+Long Bear came among the rest. Ha-ha-pah-no was not there to make
+unpleasant remarks, but the old chief knew that mule very well and he
+knew that by no chance had he returned to his owners of his own free
+will. He would have remained more contentedly with a man who had found
+or stolen him. Long Bear was positive that he had not followed his
+masters lovingly across the mountains, and that he need not make any
+pretence of having done so. He could hardly have believed that the mule
+was there at all but that he could see him, with the Big Tongue sitting
+upon him to be admired.
+
+The old chief turned and looked keenly and wistfully across the grassy
+rolls, and so did several others of the wiser warriors. There was quite
+a rise of ground at a little distance and One-eye was making for it as
+fast as his legs could carry him. Suddenly, as if by a common impulse,
+all the woods rang with a full chorus of whooping. Over the crest of
+that green ridge came galloping pony after pony and mule after mule, in
+a confused rush, and then a shrill shout arose beyond, and they could
+shortly see Two Arrows, gayly ribboned, ornamented, mounted, dashing
+madly back and forth and lashing forward the rear-guard of that
+battalion.
+
+Long Bear folded his arms and stood erect and still, as if he were
+trying to hold himself in. His own boy, and therefore he himself, had
+done another mighty deed.
+
+"Ugh! Two Arrows! Young chief! Find pony all alone."
+
+The Big Tongue tried hard to look as if he had found the mule, but it
+did not seem to fit, somehow, and twice he opened his mouth widely and
+shut it again in silence; there was no whoop ready to come. Every other
+brave had a score or more quite ready, but Two Arrows grew silent as he
+came nearer and rode more sedately. There was almost an air of
+stateliness about him when at last he followed the trail of his
+important cavalcade in under the shadows of the forest.
+
+It was not becoming for him to volunteer, in boyish haste, an
+explanation of his utterly unlooked-for exploit. Even the gray-heads
+felt that he was entitled to a respectful and dignified reception, and
+Long Bear himself stepped forward and inquired, in due form, precisely
+how that wonderful rescue had been accomplished. Now that the question
+was asked of him, Two Arrows was willing enough to tell the entire
+story, and to point to all the animals as witnesses to the truth of it.
+As fast as he told it, the more or less distorted facts went swiftly
+round from lip to lip among the squaws and younger people. It was almost
+unlucky for the Big Tongue to remark, dignifiedly,
+
+"Boy find pony. Warrior ride him;" for a half-grown warrior near him
+added,
+
+"Boy _there_. Big Tongue _here_. Same way hunt buffalo."
+
+It sounded a little like Ha-ha-pah-no, and the Big Tongue was silenced.
+He and the rest now listened to the answers of Two Arrows as to his
+visit, and he gave a full account of the good treatment he had received.
+It looked as if honors had fairly been heaped upon him and Na-tee-kah,
+and, for their sakes, upon Ha-ha-pah-no. Some of the older squaws
+shortly picked up the annoying fact concerning the latter that she had
+learned how to make coffee, and that her hair was now brushed and combed
+and made shiny. They knew what combs were. She would probably wear one
+now. She would never again be the same woman in her own estimation, they
+were sure of that. She had always held her head high enough, for her
+husband was a renowned brave and her tongue was always in good order.
+
+The drove of ponies and mules was the centre of attraction, after Two
+Arrows had finished his recital, and every Nez Percé searched it
+eagerly for his own. It was decided to send off several braves at once,
+with some squaws and pack-ponies, to bring through the pass the lodges
+and other materials they had hidden near the camp of their starvation.
+Two Arrows ate his breakfast and dinner in one meal, and was then bidden
+to mount a pony at once and ride away after his pale-face friends, with
+the strongest assurances that the Nez Percés regarded them as so many
+brothers. Long Bear also sent a handsome cougar-skin to Sile, as a
+proper acknowledgment of the fact that he had been a looker-on at the
+rescue of the quadrupeds from the misguiding leadership of the bad old
+mule. Two Arrows rode gladly away upon his errand, and some of the
+braves set out at once after the "left baggage." All whom they left
+behind them had now abundant subject-matter for conversation and for
+unlimited "Ughs!" The entire future suddenly brightened up for that band
+of Nez Percés, and they were entirely confident of their ability to
+procure a new supply of dogs. As for One-eye, that sagacious brute
+wandered around the corral, from hoof to hoof, until he knew the facts
+of the case thoroughly. He would have followed Two Arrows, but for the
+stern refusal of Long Bear. He was needed at home all the more now that
+there would be additional watching and barking to be done. On the whole
+he was as well satisfied to have it so, for his accumulation of bone
+treasures was becoming an affair for any dog to think about seriously.
+
+Sile was not exactly a hero when he reached camp, but he was an
+uncommonly hungry boy. It seemed to him that he could eat as many trout
+as Ha-ha-pah-no could broil for him, and he certainly worked at it
+steadily for a long time. Every other human being in camp did the same,
+although some had already made a fair beginning upon venison cuts and
+coffee. All had room for some fresh trout, and all said they would be
+glad of a little bear-meat for a change. Sile was in the saddle promptly
+enough after breakfast, to go and see his bear brought in. He would not
+willingly have missed that, and was only afraid lest it should have been
+stolen in his absence, in spite of the care taken by Yellow Pine to
+throw bushes over it, and give any roving coyote an idea that a trap was
+there. Said Pine, in answer to a question,
+
+"Them critters is too cunnin' for their own good. One on 'em'd sit down
+in front of that there, and howl all day and all night before he'd make
+up his mind to scratch at the brush."
+
+"How'd he guess at a trap?"
+
+"Oh, they're laid on kind o' reg'lar, and he'd smell the b'ar too, and
+he'd know it was somethin' more than ordinary. There's jest one thing
+they ain't cunnin' enough for, and that's a rifle-bullet. They'd dodge
+that if they could see it a comin'."
+
+The bear was found all safe and was brought in and skinned, and Sile
+said to himself,
+
+"Now I've got something better than a deer to tell of when Two Arrows
+gets back again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE GOLD MINE
+
+
+A proud girl was Na-tee-kah that bright September day, and she took an
+extraordinary amount of pains with her hair. So, for that matter, did
+Ha-ha-pah-no, and Sile could but discern that both treated him with much
+more respect than at first. He had been with Two Arrows at the recovery
+of the ponies, he had killed a buck and a bear, and was evidently able
+to use the weapons of grown-up white braves. He was therefore not a boy
+to be snubbed; and, if it had not been for his unfortunate light
+complexion, he was almost good-looking. At all events he was disposed to
+do his best to be polite, and they were willing to meet him as nearly
+half-way as was consistent with dignity and propriety. They were under
+the especial care of the judge himself, however, and Na-tee-kah derived
+a vast amount of comfort from an occasional look at his very fatherly
+and benevolent face. Her obvious respect for Yellow Pine was mingled
+with something like fear as yet, and she would not have a word to say to
+any of the miners. Horses were furnished to both of them when the camp
+broke up for the day's travelling, and no man in the party was more at
+home upon one, except that a side-saddle was an invention that they had
+never heard of and did not need.
+
+"We'll git to the mine afore night, jedge," said Yellow Pine, when they
+halted for their noon luncheon, and the further information he added
+stimulated all hands to push forward. Not one sign of peril or even of
+human presence, other than their own, did they encounter, and yet the
+other human beings of that region were hourly drawing nearer.
+
+The camp of the Apache marauders broke up at sunrise, with a
+considerable amount of discontented grumbling. A man familiar with their
+dialect, or with only a little of it, could easily have gathered that
+they were eager for news which did not come, and for scouts who did not
+return. Not all of them, to say the least, would ever again come into
+that or any other camp, news or no news. In the absence of any, it was
+plainly a due precaution to push forward even farther beyond the
+supposed pursuit of the men in blue.
+
+There was a good deal more than a mere supposition about that pursuit,
+for Captain Grover and his men were on the trail at as early an hour as
+was consistent with a proper care of their horses, and a hearty
+breakfast all around. They were a fine looking lot of men, bronzed and
+weather-beaten and soldierly. Their uniforms were not exactly in
+"parade" condition, but there was nothing slovenly about them, and their
+weapons were in excellent order. They had several "led-horses," to make
+good the places of any that might become over-wearied, and every animal
+in the troop showed signs of careful grooming. A captain, a lieutenant,
+and thirty men did not seem an overpowering force for a hundred and more
+of Apache warriors to run from, but neither of the two parties could
+have a correct knowledge of the strength of the other. Besides, the main
+object of an Indian raid is never a hard fight, but rather to pick up
+scalps and plunder and get away without serious loss. Red men are
+courageous enough, but they have a strong objection to being shot at or
+sabred, and know that it does not take a great many hard-won victories
+over cavalry, even if they should win them, to about wipe out the
+fighting strength of a tribe.
+
+As for Captain Grover, he had been ordered to follow and "strike" that
+band of Apaches, and compel them to return to their "reservation," and
+he had no other purpose in mind than to obey thoroughly.
+
+"I'll follow them," he remarked to the lieutenant, "as far as they
+choose to go. We've wiped out six of their scouts already."
+
+"Garry," said one of the men at the same moment, "reckon them 'Paches'll
+begin to think this 'ere's an unhealthy crowd to creep in on."
+
+"The more on 'em we can pick off," said Garry, "the fewer we'll have to
+fight at the close."
+
+"Sharp work when that comes, or I'm mistaken, but they can't take hoss
+plunder into the mountains."
+
+As they rode along so cheerily and confidently, it became plainer and
+plainer that those men had small doubt of their ability to deal with any
+ordinary band of red horse-thieves if they could meet them fairly. It
+would hardly have seemed so to an unprejudiced observer of the Apache
+cavalcade that morning. Every warrior was a perfect horseman, and was
+well mounted and well armed. There were lances instead of sabres, but
+the pistols and carbines, or rifles, were just as good as those carried
+by the cavalry. The red men were all trained and experienced soldiers,
+under capable leaders, and it looked as if all they had to do was to
+choose a good position and wait for Captain Grover and his men, and
+destroy them all. As it was, all they seemed to think of was to urge
+their drove of stolen quadrupeds forward. They could not make the best
+of time so encumbered, and when they again halted for the night, the men
+in blue were several miles nearer without one Apache knowing exactly
+where they were. The trail these had made told Captain Grover all he as
+yet needed to know, with the help of one used-up pony that the Indians
+had turned loose to shift for himself.
+
+"Beginning to break down, are they?" said the captain. "I'll strike them
+among the foothills of the ranges within three days."
+
+All that exciting chase was as yet hidden from the red and white men in
+the upper valley, and it was quite possible that they would never know
+anything about it. That depended, in fact, upon whether the Apaches
+should turn to the left or the right when they reached the "forks" of
+the little river.
+
+It was pretty late when Two Arrows again caught up with his pale-face
+friends, and his pony showed signs of very hard riding. If he had been a
+grown-up brave he could not possibly have had so warm a reception,
+except from Na-tee-kah and Ha-ha-pah-no. These two considered him the
+tallest kind of a young chief already, but all the rest regarded him
+very much as Yellow Pine did, as "the likeliest young redskin he'd ever
+come across."
+
+"I believe he is," said Judge Parks, and Sile had added,
+
+"Father, what wouldn't he know pretty soon if he could learn to read and
+write? He understands everything he sees right away."
+
+"I'd like to try the experiment, Sile, but I don't believe he would ever
+take kindly to books. I'll talk about it some other time. There is
+something else on my mind just now."
+
+There was a good deal upon everybody's mind, and even Sile ceased to
+admire Long Bear's present when Yellow Pine rose in his stirrups and
+pointed forward, shouting.
+
+"There she is, jedge--right back in that there notch!"
+
+Away to the right of them the craggy mountain arose against the sky,
+facing the valley with an uncommonly precipitous wall. In this grim face
+of granite could be seen what looked like a mere indentation. When they
+came to it, however, they discovered that Yellow Pine's "notch" was much
+narrower at its mouth than beyond it, owing to some ancient overturn and
+"landslide" of great rocks and small, which almost shut it in. Beyond
+this barrier, the opening through which was a mere roadway, there were
+several acres of good grass and trees. There were springs of water also,
+and the whole place was a good one to camp in, so long as no more
+bowlders should break loose from the slopes above and come crashing down
+into it. It was plain that none had done so for a long time past, and
+the wagons were hauled fearlessly in. There was nobody with them but
+their drivers, for every other human being had galloped on after Yellow
+Pine and Judge Parks until the old miner drew rein in front of a great
+mass of shattered, ragged, dirty looking quartz rock. In front of this a
+deep hole had been dug by somebody, and near it were traces of old
+camp-fires, bones of deer and buffalo, some rusty tin cans, and a
+worn-out pickaxe.
+
+"That's the lode, jedge. It's all I ever told ye it was. Safest place in
+the world, too, now the 'Paches are gethered onto their reservation. We
+can go right to work to-morrow mornin'."
+
+Judge Parks was at that moment examining some bits of quartz he had
+picked up. He took from his pocket a magnifying-glass and closely
+inspected stone after stone.
+
+"It looks like it, Pine. I haven't a doubt of the value of that vein.
+Look at that, Sile."
+
+Sile looked with a face more deeply flushed than even his father's.
+
+"Why, it's exactly like Yellow Pine's old specimens, so far as I can
+see; no more gold in these than in them."
+
+"That's just the point, Sile. He brought me fair specimens. There isn't
+any humbug or delusion about it. It's all right, Pine, so far as I can
+see. As for safety, the mouth of this notch could be made a perfect fort
+of, if we had to quit mining and go to fighting."
+
+"Guess we won't ever have to do that. Game's plenty, and so is fish, and
+we won't have to use up our provisions. Chance for you, Sile. You can
+keep the camp-fires going. Fetch in some fish, first thing in the
+morning, and then go for all the fresh meat there is. What we don't eat
+we can cure and put away."
+
+"I'll do the hunting!" shouted Sile. "What are the men all chopping
+for? There's plenty of dry dead wood."
+
+"I'd call it!" exclaimed Yellow Pine. "If they ain't struck with the
+mine-fever now. Jest look at 'em, jedge."
+
+"Pine," shouted one of the men from a little distance, "this 'ere shelf
+by the spring's the spot you marked for the shelter, isn't it?"
+
+"All right, boys," he responded. "Thirty feet by twelve, and an ell for
+cooking and an ell for stowage."
+
+"Nine feet high to the front, and slope to seven and a half, and lay on
+the mud as you go?"
+
+"That's it. Pitch in, boys."
+
+"I declare," said the judge; "they haven't eaten a mouthful and they've
+begun building."
+
+"They're old hands, and the sight of that show of pay-rock has kind o'
+stirred 'em up. It's all correct, though, jedge. We can look for storms
+every now and then, and the shelter won't be up any too soon if one of
+them busters should happen to be on its way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A NEW SETTLEMENT
+
+
+There is nothing else like enthusiasm. That band of bearded miners went
+into their work like a crowd of boys building a snow fort. Ha-ha-pah-no
+and Na-tee-kah took full possession of the camp-fires and cooked for
+dear life. Judge Parks and Yellow Pine finished their inspection of the
+hole in the rock and of the ore which had been dug out of it, and then
+they went to help Sile and Two Arrows care for the horses and mules.
+
+"We won't unpack much till the house is up," said the judge.
+
+"You're satisfied with the outcrop, are ye?" asked Pine, a little
+proudly.
+
+"It's all you said it was, and that is all I could ask for. We can run a
+tunnel right in now, so we can work straight along, under cover, in bad
+weather."
+
+"That's the thing to do. I believe it will pay for itself from the very
+start."
+
+"If it does," said the judge, "it will be an uncommonly good mine for a
+gold-mine. Not one in ten but what empties the pocket of its first
+owner."
+
+"This one won't, then. It's as good a property as there is, and we can
+cover all the ledge with claims and get a good title to 'em. It's fresh
+ground, and no kind of interference--"
+
+"Unless the Apaches interfere."
+
+"They don't often come east so far as this, 'specially now that most of
+'em have been cornered. Mining in these parts isn't the risky kind of
+business it used to be. Must say, though, that I felt kind o' streaked
+sometimes, last year, when I was a prospectin'."
+
+"There was risk in it, all alone; but nine rifles and a good breastwork
+will make a tremendous difference."
+
+"They will that, and there's no sech thing as takin' us in the rear.
+They can't climb over that ridge, nor that one."
+
+It was later than usual when anybody lay down that evening. Two Arrows
+and his sister had heard of mines before, but they had never seen one,
+and the whole matter was a great curiosity.
+
+These uncommonly well-behaved pale-faces meant to dig a hole into the
+side of that mountain and get gold out of it, and they were going to
+build a stone "lodge" and stay there. Sile explained to them, as well as
+he could, a purpose he had formed of making a great farm in that valley,
+and raising all sorts of things to feed the miners, and of having a town
+there, with schools and churches for the Indians, and a public library
+and a saw-mill and a grist-mill and a blacksmith-shop and a hotel. The
+main idea obtained by Two Arrows was that in a little while the valley
+would be full of horses of the best kinds. Na-tee-kah went beyond that
+and got a picture into her mind of a big stone lodge, where a trader
+would live and have for sale a wonderful heap of all such things as the
+white squaws dressed themselves up with. She went to sleep at last, with
+her black eyes half dazzled by a vision of bright colors and
+glitterings, and had a dream that the trader had come and was ready to
+trade almost anything for the skin of a grisly bear. As for Two Arrows,
+not all that could be said about mines and farms could drive from him
+one grand ambition, that had taken deep root as he studied the many
+possessions of those pale-faces. Somehow or other, he meant to obtain a
+rifle. His father had a good one, and so had each of the acknowledged
+warriors of his band, but all the boys were as yet forced to put up with
+bows and arrows. Some of the braves even carried revolvers, and the
+hunting had been so poor that they were well supplied with ammunition.
+Two Arrows had learned from Sile that there were extra rifles and
+pistols, and no end of cartridges, in those wagons, but everybody knew
+that all that sort of thing had to be paid for, and Two Arrows lay awake
+a long time, feverishly wondering what he could find among those
+mountains to buy a rifle with, and a revolver and some ammunition. He
+felt that he should be a mere boy, after all, and not a full-grown
+brave, until he could exchange his bow and arrows for weapons which
+would kill a bear at long range. He wished never to have to wait for
+another on the top of any rock. It was the only point in which he could
+see that Sile had any real advantage over him to balance the humiliation
+of being a pale-face instead of the son of a Nez Percé chief. He was
+compelled to admit one more in the morning, for he had forgotten the
+fishing-rods and hooks and lines, and Sile was up before it was light,
+ready to begin his duty of keeping the camp supplied with provisions.
+
+"We won't walk this time," he said, in a very business-like way. "We'll
+just ride across to the river and catch enough for breakfast and hurry
+back. None of the men can be spared from their work."
+
+The sun arose very grandly over the magnificent mountain ranges, but he
+showed them all that wonderful scenery in vain. Sile was fishing for
+provisions for his father's men, and Two Arrows thought of rifles and
+pistols every time he pulled in a trout. He did not speak of the weight
+upon his mind as yet, but he was gradually forming a purpose of doing so
+at the earliest opportunity. It was almost like going to an open market
+for fish, except that there was nothing to pay for them. As fast as a
+line could be thrown, and its little silvery trap set a whirling, the
+hook was seized by some trout or other, large or small. Some of them
+were so heavy as to test the toughness of the upper joints of the rods,
+and now Two Arrows made a discovery. He had watched Sile work his reel
+until he had caught the secret of it, and could let a strong fish run a
+little before he drew him in. It was an idea that suited him exactly,
+and it made the fun more exciting.
+
+"I say," exclaimed Sile, before a great while, "they're awful eaters,
+but they can't use up all we've got now. Let's just string 'em, and ride
+back to camp."
+
+The movements of his hands, along with his words, explained his meaning,
+and Two Arrows pulled in his last fish with an "Ugh! good," for answer.
+He was doing one thing more rapidly than anybody had an idea of. He was
+a born "linguist," as many Indians are, and he was gathering words of
+English at a great rate. He was not sure he could yet utter correctly
+quite a number that he fully understood on hearing them, and his pride
+forbade him to make blunders. His trouble was with his tongue and not
+with his ears, as many an older fellow has found when he undertook to
+make a speech before critical people.
+
+The camp was all astir when they rode in, and the coffee-pot was already
+upon the fire.
+
+"That's the checker, my boy," said Yellow Pine, when he saw the fish.
+"We sha'n't do any starving. Let your horse feed a while, and then you
+and he go for some fresh meat. Look at _them!"_
+
+There was a great grin upon his face as he pointed at Judge Parks and
+the miners. The judge had taken up a heavy hammer and was busily
+breaking masses of quartz to examine their quality, and the men had
+again gone at their building.
+
+"Nary one of 'em's eaten a mouthful," said Pine, just as a chopper
+rested from his work to shout,
+
+"We'll have enough shingles rived for the roof by the time them fellers
+gits their wall up;" and another said,
+
+"Pine, that there clay-bank by the spring's the very best kind. It's
+most as good as mortar."
+
+"'Tis if you temper it well," said Pine. "Call 'em to breakfast.
+There'll be fish br'iled and ready in no time."
+
+Ha-ha-pah-no and Na-tee-kah each had a frying-pan, and the fish were put
+in as fast as they were cleaned, but some of the men could not wait for
+that. They insisted upon cleaning and cooking for themselves, for, as
+Jonas remarked,
+
+"We can't git at the mine till the shelter's done and the waggins are
+unpacked. We'll have it up in short order."
+
+As soon as he had finished his coffee and trout and "army bread," Sile
+went to take a look at what they were doing, and it made him open his
+eyes. The ground they had chosen, near a fine spring of water, was
+nearly level. They had marked out the lines of the walls they meant to
+build, and then along those lines they had dug a trench about a foot
+deep and two feet wide. No cellar was called for as yet, and the
+mason-work began at once. There was plenty of broken stone to be had,
+and it was rolled or carried with busy eagerness to the men who were
+laying the wall. One man at the clay-bank toiled zealously at the
+important task of mixing and tempering it, while another came and went
+with pailfuls that were used up as fast as he could bring them. The
+stones were laid with their smooth faces inward, and there was not a
+minute wasted in trimming anything for the sake of appearances. Sile
+could hardly believe that so much could have been done is so short a
+time, and he was again astonished when the men returned from breakfast.
+The wall grew at a tremendous rate. He went from that work to the place
+where the choppers were swinging their axes. A tall pine-tree, four feet
+in diameter at the base, was down shortly after the men went at it the
+previous evening, and now two sturdy fellows were making the chips fly
+as if they were chopping for a wager. They were evidently cutting the
+huge trunk into lengths of about three feet, and Sile was studying the
+matter when Two Arrows touched him on the elbow and pointed at the
+choppers.
+
+"Ugh! What for?"
+
+"Wait. Show him by-and-by," said Sile. "Make shingles to cover house."
+
+"Ugh! Big lodge. Heap hard. No fall down. Top?"
+
+"Yes. Make cover. Keep out rain."
+
+"Ugh! Pale-face do a heap. Go away and leave him all," said Two Arrows.
+
+It was the longest sentence he had yet attempted in English, and Sile
+looked at him with some surprise, but he should have remembered that Two
+Arrows had made a beginning long before that, and was but adding to it.
+At all events, he was correct in his conclusion that such a lodge could
+not be carried away, as could those for which Long Bear had sent his
+braves and squaws through the pass. It was perfectly certain that these
+would not loiter anywhere, but would go straight on their errand and
+return, and then the village would once more be under as good a shelter
+as it knew anything about or cared for.
+
+All that day the axes fell, the wall grew fast, and Judge Parks and
+Yellow Pine went on with their examinations and their other preparations
+for "opening the mine;" and all day long some other things went on
+without their knowing it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+DANGER
+
+
+The Apaches, in their encampment away down the river, cooked fish for
+breakfast at about the same hour that the miners did, but their trout
+had not been caught anything like so rapidly. It had required the work
+of several men, up and down the bank, for hours of the previous evening
+and for all the time since daylight, with their imperfect tackle, to get
+in enough for such a war-party. Nor had they cleaned or cooked so
+perfectly, and the fish had been eaten without pepper or salt. There was
+not a plate or a fork in the band, and there was not even a wish for
+coffee.
+
+It was a hasty meal, greedily devoured, and then the marauders were once
+more in the saddle, or riding barebacked, as the case might be. All the
+while that the miners were so enthusiastically raising their stone lodge
+a peril they hardly thought of was pushing nearer and nearer. They knew
+well enough that they were in an Indian country, but were well assured
+that as yet no hostile red men could be aware of their arrival. It was
+also pretty sure that every stroke of work they did added to their
+security, for neither arrow nor bullet will go through a wall of quartz
+and granite two feet in thickness. Judge Parks had ideas of his own as
+to the future protection of the "notch," but the time had not yet come
+to say anything about them.
+
+It was not many hours after the Apaches got in motion before they came
+to the forks of the stream, and here they halted for a general
+consultation. They already had well-mounted scouts ahead in both
+directions, and neither side had yet sent in any suggestion of danger
+discovered. They were evidently familiarly acquainted with the whole
+region, and there were arguments in favor of both lines of advance, but
+a gray-headed old warrior at last settled the question. He had been
+sitting quietly and listening to what others said until his turn seemed
+to come, but now he arose, and all seemed willing to listen. Pointing
+with his long, naked arm up the right fork of the river, he said, in his
+own harsh, gutteral tongue,
+
+"Mountains. When blue-coats come, lose horses. Caught in big trap."
+
+Turning and pointing up the other fork, he said,
+
+"Morning. Hole in mountains. Blue-coats come. Go through hole. Get away.
+Come back some day, when blue-coats go home sick. Ugh!"
+
+It was not a long speech, and it could hardly be described as "eloquent"
+but all the wiser and more influential braves said "Ugh!" and the road
+to the left was decided upon without any more discussion. That also
+decided in advance the course to be followed by Captain Grover and his
+cavalry, when they in their turn should reach the same point. Hour by
+hour they were slowly gaining upon the dangerous horse-thieves they were
+pursuing, and in due time they would surely learn whether or not they
+had a right to rejoice upon catching up with them. They were acting as
+the police and constables of a very disorderly community.
+
+As for Long Bear and his Nez Percés, they had a very good reason for
+lazily hunting and fishing around their present camp until the return of
+the party which had gone for the hidden lodges, and so forth. Very few
+Indians need anything better than an excuse for not doing anything.
+
+Two Arrows was not one of those Indians. Na-tee-kah continually called
+his attention to something new which she had discovered in the ways or
+in the possessions of those pale-faces. She was greatly interested in a
+curious wire "broiler." It opened, and a fish or a steak was put in, and
+it shut up and was put upon the coals, and when the cooking was
+finished, the long handles enabled you to take it off and not burn your
+fingers. There were twenty other things as wonderful as the broiler; and
+the judge had shown her how to wash her hands with soap, and had given
+her a pair of ear-rings and a silver buckle for her new blanket. She
+hardly knew what would come next, but she entirely sympathized with her
+brother in his own dream when he told her what it was.
+
+"Ask pale-face chief," she said.
+
+"Ugh! Laugh. Bow and arrows good enough for boy."
+
+He said it almost bitterly, and Na-tee-kah stamped on the ground sharply
+as she responded,
+
+"Two Arrows is a young chief. Big brave. Not a boy any more. Kill
+grisly. Kill cougar and big-horn. Bring back pony. Great chief in a
+little while. Give him rifle."
+
+Two Arrows had a good enough opinion of himself, but he perfectly
+understood the easy good-nature with which he was treated by Yellow Pine
+and the rest. They regarded Sile as one bright boy and him as another,
+and had no idea of wasting costly rifles and such things upon him. He
+grew almost sullen over it, and was glad to get away from the camp when
+Sile came and asked him to go on a hunt with him.
+
+This time there was a little pride as well as good-sense in his positive
+refusal to borrow a rifle. He was determined to shoot with his own
+weapons or none, and he rode away with no better ones than had been used
+by his tribe before they had ever heard of white men, and long before
+gunpowder had been invented. They were pretty good weapons yet, but
+there was one thing Two Arrows did not dream of. That was that it was
+not such a great number of years since the ancestors of these very
+pale-faces had gone to war and to hunt with bows and arrows vastly
+better than any ever carried by any red Indian in the world. The English
+race were bowmen once, just as they are riflemen now, shooting closer to
+the bull's-eye than any other.
+
+Two Arrows felt that there was a sort of fever upon him. It made him hot
+and restless, and his eyes wandered searchingly in all directions,
+longing for an opportunity to do something which would bring him nearer
+to the prizes he coveted. Sile also was watching keenly the tops and
+branches of every clump of bushes they came to, but it almost seemed as
+if the game had suddenly migrated. It was natural that none should
+linger near the smoke and smell of camp-fires and cookery, but it was
+queer that the two young hunters should canter quietly on for mile after
+mile, and not so much as get a shot at a deer.
+
+"We won't go back without something," said Sile. "I told father so. I
+mean to go right along. We can camp in the woods by ourselves if we
+don't kill anything early enough to get back to-night."
+
+He had some trouble in making his meaning clear to Two Arrows, and the
+ambitious young Nez Percé was in precisely the frame of mind to agree
+with him. They even rode a little faster, and were hardly aware of the
+distance they had travelled. Sile was beginning to grow nervous about
+his reputation as a hunter and to remember that the camp had only a
+three days' supply of fresh meat, in spite of the fish. He believed that
+he had seen everything there was to be seen, but he was mistaken.
+Suddenly Two Arrows uttered a loud, astonished "Ugh!" sprang from his
+pony, and beckoned Sile to do the same, leading him hurriedly towards
+the nearest bushes.
+
+Sile imitated his friend, without any idea of a reason for it, until Two
+Arrows took him by the arm and pointed away to the right towards the
+mountain range. They were on the crest of a high roll of ground, and
+could see for miles in some directions, except as the view was cut off
+by patches and strips of forest.
+
+"Look! 'Pache!"
+
+All that at first appeared to Sile's eyes were some moving black spots;
+but now he was able to show Two Arrows another of the advantages of a
+civilized man over a savage. Slung from his left shoulder was a small
+leathern case, and Two Arrows watched him closely while he opened it,
+took out something silver-mounted and handsome and put it to his eyes.
+Such things had been much discussed in his hearing, and he knew it was
+the "long eye of the pale-faces;" but he had no faith in it until Sile
+made him try it.
+
+"There they are; six of 'em," said Sile. "Then look away down yonder and
+you'll see some more."
+
+"No see us," said Two Arrows. "Come! Heap bad."
+
+So it was, for the dreaded strangers were between them and the
+mountains. For all they knew, they might have ridden past others unseen,
+and these might intercept their return. Sile was only a white boy, and
+in an instant he understood that the young chief was the "captain" of
+their squad of two.
+
+Two Arrows seemed to have the same notion instinctively, for anybody
+could read the look of blank uncertainty upon Sile's face. His binocular
+spy-glass could help him see farther and more accurately than the best
+pair of Indian eyes in the world, but it could not tell him what to do
+next.
+
+"Come!" said Two Arrows, as he led his pony back down the slope and
+towards the forest that skirted the river. This was less than half a
+mile away, but the horses were not mounted until both were well under
+cover of it. It struck Sile that they might safely ride homeward along
+the stream, but Nez Percé training and caution forbade any such risk as
+that. Even the operation of reaching the bank might be full of peril,
+for nobody could guess at what moment they might stumble upon Apache
+warriors, and no others were at all likely to be there. It was most
+unlikely, however, that their enemies were advancing upon both sides of
+the water, and as soon as Two Arrows reached it he rode in. It was a
+wide and therefore shallow place, easily forded, and Sile breathed more
+freely as soon as he was under the shade of the woods beyond. His guide
+and captain pushed right on until they were out in a comparatively open
+reach of country, and then he turned to Sile, his whole face gleaming
+with uncontrollable excitement, and exclaimed,
+
+"Ugh! Ride now. Kill hoss. Save pale-face. Save Nez Percé. Get there
+before Apache. All scalp gone if 'Pache come first."
+
+He suppressed a whoop, but the next bound of his pony explained his
+meaning, and Sile galloped, stride by stride, with him. It was a race
+for life and for the lives of many others; for Two Arrows had briefly
+read that problem when he said to Sile, as he handed him back his glass,
+
+"No squaw. Braves on war-path. No hunt. Kill. Take scalp."
+
+Both were well mounted, and Sile rode well, although by no means so
+completely at home on horseback as was his red friend. His rifle, too,
+was more tiresome to carry than was a light lance, and the bow and
+arrows were now tightly "slung," and required no handling. It would not
+do to wear out their horses in one rush, but they kept on at the highest
+speed at all consistent with a long ride. It was much faster, at all
+events, than the Apaches were likely to travel, unless something new
+should stir them up. By keeping well away from the stream, they were not
+compelled to follow its windings, and could ride more nearly in a
+straight line, only turning out for clumps of trees and similar
+obstructions and paying no attention to game, although they now saw gang
+after gang of deer and a respectable party of bisons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SILE'S VICTORY
+
+
+There had been no anxiety at the mine on account of the absent hunters.
+Judge Parks and Yellow Pine had their hands very full of an inspection
+of the cargoes of the two wagons. The men toiled vigorously at the stone
+wall and at the shingle riving. Ha-ha-pah-no and Na-tee-kah were as busy
+as bees over the lengthening list of marvels put before their eyes. It
+seemed to Na-tee-kah as if Judge Parks must be a kind of magician, or
+else that he had a whole lodge full of "medicine-men" of a rare breed at
+home, who could conjure up for him almost anything he might chose to
+call for. It was no use to try to understand such things as he and
+Yellow Pine were examining. They belonged to the great mystery of
+pale-face life, and a Nez Percé girl could not be expected to guess very
+nearly at their uses. She could comb her hair more carefully, however,
+and discover a new way of doing it up, and she did not know how closely
+she was imitating many pale-face young ladies of about her age, not to
+speak of older ones.
+
+Noon came and went, and there were no signs of returning hunters or of
+game of any sort, but there was no danger of famine in that camp for
+days and days to come.
+
+Judge Parks would hardly have unpacked mining-tools and "fixings," as
+Pine called them, so composedly if he could have known what was going
+forward farther down the valley and on the other side of the little
+river.
+
+On, on rode Two Arrows and his companion, and it almost seemed as if
+both were growing older. It was no sort of boy-play to ride like that,
+with such tremendous consequences depending upon them. Sile's merry face
+put on a tremendously sober and earnest expression, while Two Arrows
+looked as if he were already a chief in command of a war-party. So he
+was, only that the party was a very small one.
+
+Mile after mile went by, and the horses held out capitally; but at last
+Two Arrows slackened his gait, seemed to make a silent calculation, and
+halted.
+
+"Pale-face camp there," he said, emphatically, pointing across towards
+the mountain range at their left. "Red-head cross water. Tell his
+people. Two Arrows ride. Tell Nez Percé. Red-head go straight, find
+camp. Ugh!"
+
+"I can find it," said Sile. "I was thinking we'd gone up river about far
+enough. We must have got away ahead of the Apaches. Hope I sha'n't meet
+any."
+
+"Shoot quick," said Two Arrows. "Kill. Take 'calp. Be great brave. Two
+Arrows kill grisly. Kill 'Pache some day. How!"
+
+He held out his hand, and Sile shook it hard in token of good-bye, and
+the two boys separated, each to carry his own tidings and face his own
+dangers. Two Arrows rode on in a straight line up the valley, and Sile
+wheeled towards the line of forest which bordered the river. It struck
+him that he was yet a little below the precise neighborhood of the mine,
+and he was correct, but as yet it was all guess-work. At all events, he
+was sure that his remaining ride could not be a long one; it could not
+fail to be intensely exciting. Again he saw plenty of game, and he was
+strangely tempted to try a shot at a deer until the idea came to him,
+
+"I can't say what ears might hear the report of my rifle."
+
+Deer did not seem to be of any account after that idea took form, and he
+galloped on. In a few minutes more his horse's feet were in the water,
+and he was almost immediately aware that he had not chosen a good ford.
+It grew deep too fast, and he had to ride out again.
+
+"I won't go into another pool," he said to himself. "I'll hunt for a
+wide place where it ripples well."
+
+He had not the experience and the quick eyes of Two Arrows, but he was
+learning fast, and it was easy to find a better crossing. Once over, he
+felt that the forest was itself a sort of protection, and there came a
+great thrill all over him at the thought of riding out from under it.
+What if the Apaches should be already there, and what if they had found
+the camp and destroyed it?
+
+"They haven't done that," said Sile, "unless they managed to take it by
+surprise. Guess they couldn't do that in broad daylight. Our men are all
+old hands, and Yellow Pine keeps his eyes about him. I'll get in a good
+while before dark--that is, if I make out to get in. I wish there was
+good cover all the way."
+
+He drew rein for a moment under the last line of trees, and he looked
+earnestly in all directions, but even his spy-glass could not reveal to
+him a sign of danger. He had never seen anything more absolutely quiet
+and peaceful than was that stretch of open valley, with its grass and
+its bushes, and its clusters of grand old trees. It encouraged him a
+good deal to see a buck and two does feeding within a quarter of a mile
+of him, and he at once rode watchfully onward. His horse was beginning
+to show signs of hard riding, and he noted it regretfully. There might
+yet be a race to run, for all he knew.
+
+There was to be something very different from a race, and the notice of
+it came to him very suddenly. Just as he rode out through a patch of
+willows in a long hollow, walking his horse because of their being in
+his way a little, his heart seemed to stop beating and stand still.
+Then it beat again, and like a trip-hammer, for a moment. The bridle
+fell from his hand, and he made ready his rifle as if by an instinctive
+movement.
+
+Right before him and hardly a hundred yards away, on the rising ground,
+sat an Indian brave, in his war-paint, upon a very fine looking horse,
+and Sile was sure at a glance that he could not be one of his Nez Percé
+friends. They had no such horses as that among all that he and Two
+Arrows had found for them. The warrior was looking in the opposite
+direction at the instant, but he was also wheeling his horse, and in a
+second or so more he caught sight of Sile. He had a lance, but it was
+slung behind him, and in his hands was as good a repeating-rifle as
+Sile's own, and he raised it like a flash.
+
+It was as if he lifted two, for Sile's rifle also came up with precisely
+the same quick, ready-handed motion.
+
+It was an awful moment for Sile. He had never before done as much real
+thinking in one hour as he did between his first glimpse of that redskin
+and the rising of the dark, threatening line of that rifle-barrel.
+
+He had thought of the men at the mine, and of their need of warning, and
+therefore of the necessity that he should protect himself and get to
+them alive. He had thought of his father and his mother, and of some
+other people, and he had also thought what a dreadful thing it was to
+shoot straight at a man, and perhaps to kill him. He had just said to
+himself,
+
+"I might just kill his horse, and then I could get away from him."
+
+At that very instant the two rifles came to a level, whether he would or
+not. He felt no symptoms of "buck ague" this time, for every nerve and
+muscle of his body was stiffening, while his tired horse stood as still
+as a stone. That was where he had a priceless advantage. The spirited
+animal ridden by his enemy was a trifle restive for some reason, and
+caused a shade of delay that was just enough to give Sile his only
+remaining chance.
+
+"If I hit his horse in the head," he was thinking as he pulled the
+trigger: but that would have been close shooting at a hundred yards, and
+just beyond the head of the horse was the naked breast of the warrior.
+
+There were two reports close together, and Sile felt something prick him
+sharply on the left arm near the shoulder. At the same moment he saw the
+red man reel to and fro upon his horse, and then pitch off head foremost
+into the grass.
+
+"Oh, dear me, I've shot him!" he exclaimed, and his first impulse was to
+ride away as fast as he could.
+
+Then came a suggestion that the brave might be only wounded, and that it
+was his duty to go and see if he could do anything for him. With that,
+too, there came a great gush of curiosity and a fierce and feverish
+sense of triumph. He had fought a duel on horseback with an Indian
+warrior, with rifles, and there were no other white boys who could say
+that they had done that. He sat still upon his horse for a moment, and
+his breath came and went very quickly, and then he somewhat cautiously
+rode forward. The Indian's horse had bounded away for a little distance
+when his master fell, but was now standing and looking at him, as if in
+doubt as to what he ought to do next. Not another human being of any
+kind was to be seen, but Sile looked around him anxiously enough to make
+sure that he was alone. Not one sound disturbed the peaceful silence of
+the valley after those two rifles had spoken.
+
+All irresolution passed out of Sile's mind as he rode forward, for he
+felt that he had behaved rightly, and had done nothing for which he
+could blame himself. He watched the fallen man narrowly as he drew near
+him, but there was no motion or any other sign of life.
+
+"I must have killed him outright!" He sprang from his horse and bent
+over the prostrate form, but he did not have to look more than once.
+"That hole--that's where the bullet went in. It must have gone right
+through his heart. Well, he would have killed me if I had not killed
+him. I would not have hurt him if I could have helped it."
+
+It seemed to Sile a matter of course that he should pick up the red
+warrior's rifle, unbuckle and take off the bead-worked belt that carried
+his knife and revolver, take his lance, catch his horse, and then ride
+onward, carrying with him all as "spoils of war." He did it coolly and
+steadily but rapidly, and without any idea how very fast he was growing.
+He was learning lessons in a great school, but any wise old man could
+have told him that no two boys learn the same lessons anywhere. A good
+deal more depends upon the boy himself than upon the school or the
+teacher.
+
+That tall, brawny Apache warrior had been a distinguished brave, and he
+had been sent upon a scouting trip away in advance of the rest merely as
+a customary precaution. There had been no expectation that he would
+discover anything remarkable. In meeting a solitary pale-face, he had
+undertaken to kill him very much as a matter of course, for he was just
+then at war with all white men. Sile had made the better shot of the
+two, and that was about all that could be said. As for Sile, he was in a
+greater hurry than ever to get to the mine, and again and again he
+wondered whether Two Arrows had met any Apaches.
+
+"I do hope he hasn't," he said to himself, "with only a bow and arrows.
+I wish he had a rifle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A MIDNIGHT MARCH
+
+
+When Two Arrows parted from Sile he was well aware that the errand of
+the Red-head had more real peril in it than his own, and he would not
+have had him armed with only a bow and arrows; but oh how he did long
+for a repeating-rifle for his own use! He had been hungry enough for one
+before; but now that there was a promise of war it seemed to him that
+the only thing in the world worth the having, except a horse, was one of
+the white man's terrible weapons. With such as he now had he had killed
+wild animals and won for himself a name and fame, but in spite of that
+he almost despised them. What could he do now, for instance, against an
+Apache well armed, as all that warlike tribe were said to be?
+
+He also had a prejudiced idea that if Sile were to meet one of them he
+would be in a manner helpless--a mere ignorant, green, untaught,
+unready, white boy, not the son of a Nez Percé chief, nor skilled in the
+wiles and ways of Western warfare. As for himself, he felt quite
+confident that all he needed wherewith to meet and overcome anything or
+anybody was just such a perfect "repeater" as Sile carried. He somehow
+overlooked the fact that he had never practised much with one, while
+Sile belonged to the race that made them. He had been used to a bow and
+arrows from the time he had learned to ride, and almost from the time he
+had learned to walk; so that, after all, they might be his safest
+weapon.
+
+He rode on steadily for a few miles, and then he crossed the stream and
+proceeded under cover of the trees. It was time to travel more slowly,
+for his pony had no gallop left in him. The approach to the camp even
+was made with some caution, but there was no need of any.
+
+The sun was going down, and the fires were blazing brightly. The hunters
+had done well that day, and there were preparations for much eating. Two
+Arrows knew at a glance that all things were working prosperously, and
+that his people had no suspicion of any danger near them. The vast
+importance of his errand filled him very full, and he halted under the
+shadow of the trees.
+
+Warriors were stalking around here and there, or were lazily stretched
+upon the ground. Squaws were busily dressing skins, or cooking or
+chattering with one another, and children were hungrily watching the
+cookery and wishing that their turns to be fed might come pretty soon.
+Old One-eye was at work upon a well-covered bone before going out for
+his usual night-watch and patrol, but he was suddenly called upon to
+drop it and to raise his head for a howl.
+
+Out of the growing darkness in the edge of the woods there came a quick
+series of sharp, threatening, warning whoops, uttered in a shrill and
+youthful voice that the dog knew perfectly. So did others, for Long Bear
+sprang to his feet, exclaiming,
+
+"Ugh! Two Arrows!" and answered him with a whoop of such volume and
+meaning that every brave and boy who heard it understood it as a
+command, and ran for his weapons first, and then to the corral to see
+about his pony.
+
+Two Arrows dismounted and led his over-ridden pony into camp. Long Bear
+stood silently and dignifiedly in front of his lodge waiting for him,
+and the older warriors were gathering fast to hear the news. They knew
+very well that no Indian boy would have dared to give such a signal as
+that without good reason, and their faces were clouding seriously.
+
+"Two Arrows speak quick," said his father. "All hear him."
+
+The young scout felt deeply the pride of his position. He pointed
+towards the lower valley with all the dignity he could muster, and
+uttered only the words,
+
+"'Pache! War-path!"
+
+There was a dismal chorus of "Ugh!" from all who heard him, but there
+was not one war-whoop. He was at once called upon for a minute and
+careful account of the whole affair, including the locality and
+condition of Judge Parks and his party of miners. He made his report
+with a fullness and keenness of observation that stirred up the old
+chief's family pride amazingly.
+
+"Young chief," he remarked. "Do something more every time."
+
+It looked very much like it, and his return as an intelligent and
+successful scout added largely to all his other claims to distinction.
+Not another boy in the band had ever announced anything so very bad and
+so important.
+
+That was no time for anybody to spend a thought upon the fame of Two
+Arrows, however. All the old men said, one after another, that they
+wished they knew just how many Apaches there were in that war-party. Had
+they known how very strong it was, they might have been even worse
+puzzled, but Long Bear was really a clear-headed leader, and he decided
+the whole matter promptly and finally. He told his gathering braves that
+the place where they were was a bad one to fight in, while their
+pale-face friends had selected a peculiarly good one. They themselves
+had but twenty-three warriors armed with rifles, and nearly as many more
+young men and well-grown boys armed with bows and arrows. That was no
+force with which to meet Apaches, nobody knew how many, and all sure to
+be riflemen. To go back through the pass was to die of sure starvation,
+even if they were not followed and slaughtered among the rocks. The
+Apaches were plainly making for that very pass, he said; and he was only
+a keen-eyed chief and not at all a prophet when he read the matter
+correctly and said,
+
+"'Pache run away from blue-coats. All in a hurry. Not stop. Nez Percé
+hide and let them go by. Not fight. Keep pony. Keep hair. Good. Ugh!"
+
+The party which had been sent back after the lodges and things was a
+serious anxiety, and a light-footed youngster was started off at once to
+warn them. He would be sure to meet them on their way, returning, and
+could tell them to be on their guard, and very little more could be done
+for them.
+
+Long Bear finished his speech of explanation, and then, without a
+moment's pause, he gave the order to break up camp and prepare to march,
+carrying with them every pound of provisions. Not one moment was to be
+lost in gaining such protection as might be had from the good position
+of the miners, and from the fact that they were pale-faces of some
+importance, and from the other great fact that they were all good
+riflemen. There was hardly anybody in the band, old enough to understand
+what an Apache was, who did not fully appreciate the force of the
+chief's argument, and every squaw did her best to hasten the departure.
+Lodges came down, ponies were packed, children were gathered, warriors
+and braves and boys completed their preparations for fighting; the Big
+Tongue declared his readiness to kill a large number of Apaches, and
+One-eye was compelled to abandon forever all the bones he had buried
+since the people he barked for had settled upon the bank of that river.
+
+There was a good deal of quiet and sober efficiency in spite of the
+excitement. Two Arrows had further questions to answer from quite a
+number of his elders. He was furnished with one of the best ponies in
+the drove in acknowledgment of his services. He was now, also, to figure
+as a kind of guide, and he did not once think of or mention the fatigue
+of his long, hard ride. He very willingly ate, however, the whole of a
+buffalo steak, broiled for him by one of the squaws, and felt a good
+deal better afterwards. He almost felt that he had earned a rifle, or at
+least a pistol, but well knew that it was all in vain to ask for one,
+when the supply was insufficient to arm all the braves who were a full
+head taller than himself.
+
+Still, it was a magnificent thing, at last, to ride out at the head of
+the cavalcade, by the side of a tall warrior, as the one boy of all that
+band who was on first-rate terms with the pale-faces and knew perfectly
+the trail leading to them. As for that, any red man of them all could
+have followed the tracks of the wagon-wheels, even at night, but Two
+Arrows had no idea of surrendering that part of his growing importance.
+It would have done Na-tee-kah's proud heart good to have seen him in
+particular, and it would have been well worth the while of almost
+anybody else to have had a good look at the whole affair, as the motley
+array poured out into the moonlight from under the shadowy cover of the
+primeval forest.
+
+There were no sleepy ones except the pappooses, and they could sleep
+under the tightly-drawn blankets upon the backs of their mothers as well
+as anywhere else. All the rest were more or less hardened to the quick
+changes and migrations of the kind of life into which they had been
+born. They were not likely to be injured by being kept up pretty late
+for one night, and there was no need that anybody should walk, now that
+their four-footed wealth had returned.
+
+Two Arrows thought of that, and he could hardly help reminding some of
+his friends of his share in so good a thing. He received a reply from
+one gray-headed warrior which sounded very much like a snub:
+
+"Ugh! Two Arrows. Red-head. Boys find pony first. Pony there. Brave find
+next day. Boy talk too much. Kill 'Pache like warrior. Then talk a heap.
+Show scalp. Whoop. Ugh!"
+
+As for war and that sort of thing, there was no need for anybody to
+stir the ambition of Two Arrows up to a greater heat. He was ready
+enough now to do the wildest and rashest things he could think of. He
+felt as if he were out upon his first war-path, and that there must be
+somewhere a great heap of glory preparing for him.
+
+The Nez Percé camp had been broken up with great celerity, and no time
+had been lost, but after all the summons to move had come upon them most
+unexpectedly. There had been a great deal to do and but a dim light to
+do it by, and so it was pretty late before the picturesque caravan was
+in motion. It took a line of march towards the mountains until its head
+struck the well-marked tracks of the loaded wagons, and from that point
+forward its course required little guiding. By a stern command from Long
+Bear the utmost silence was maintained, and, after the moon went down,
+the movement might fairly be said to have been performed in secret.
+There was no danger that any small squad of Apache scouts would assail
+so strong a party. Even the squaws and children felt pretty safe, but it
+was very hard upon the Big Tongue, for that great brave soon found
+himself in an advanced party, commanded by Long Bear himself, and after
+that he was under an absolute necessity of not saying anything.
+
+[Illustration: THE MOONLIGHT MARCH OF NEZ PERCÉS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+PREPARING FOR AN ATTACK
+
+
+A good while before Two Arrows reached the camp of his people Judge
+Parks and Yellow Pine discovered that they had done about as much as
+they could at the mouth of what was yet to be the mine until they should
+have men to help them. The judge handed to Na-tee-kah another book of
+pictures to wonder over, and then he and Pine went upon a tour of
+inspection. They found the choppers busy with beetles and wedges upon
+the lengths of easily-cloven pine, and the heap of long, wide slabs or
+shingles for the roof was growing rapidly.
+
+"We can make it weather-tight with moss-packing," said Pine, "and if we
+can't have sash and glass we can make good solid doors and shutters."
+
+"There will be storms," said the judge.
+
+"Yes, but the winters are never hard down here. Even if we got snowed in
+it wouldn't stay long, and the supply-train'll get here before the end
+of next month. Can't lose its way."
+
+"I should say not. But now just look at that wall."
+
+It was worth looking at, if only for the way in which it was rising.
+The mud and stones went into place with a perfect rush. At that rate
+there would quickly be a finished house there, such as it was to be. All
+was well and solidly laid, too, and the inner face was smooth enough.
+That was more than could be said for the outside, and Pine remarked,
+
+"Reckon nobody'll care to rub himself very hard against the side of that
+shelter when it's done."
+
+From the house they both strolled away for a look at the animals, and
+then on down to the mouth of the notch. They were noting with care the
+several peculiarities of the rocky elevations to the right and left,
+when the judge felt his arm gripped very hard, and Yellow Pine
+exclaimed,
+
+"Look there, jedge! Something's happened to the young redskin."
+
+Judge Parks carried a spy-glass as good as Sile's and it was up
+instantly. "That's Sile, but the horse he's leading isn't a pony. Look,
+Pine."
+
+"I'd call it--How close this thing does bring 'em. I could count his
+buttons. He's carrying two rifles and a lance. Something mighty queer
+has turned up, jedge, but you can see that Sile's all right. What can
+have become of Two Arrows? I hope he hasn't been wiped out. He was the
+likeliest kind of a young chap."
+
+"We'll know when he gets here."
+
+Waiting was about all they could do, but they grew more and more
+impatient until Sile came within hail. After that the questions and
+answers chased each other back and forth until the entire account of
+Sile's hunt and its ending was perfectly understood.
+
+Sile saw his father shudder and turn pale, and then flush fiery red,
+while he described his encounter with the Apache. He had dismounted
+before he got to that, and the next thing he felt was a pair of arms
+around him, and he heard Yellow Pine exclaim,
+
+"I could a'most hug the young rooster myself. It was jest the gamest
+kind of thing to do. I say, Sile, he barked ye on yer left arm. I'd call
+it, now, if that there wasn't close work. Take yer jacket off."
+
+Sile had hardly paid any attention to that matter, although his arm had
+felt a little stiff, and there was really not much of a hurt. In another
+instant his father was saying so, but he said it with a peculiar look
+upon his face. The Indian's bullet had been a "Minie-ball," of course,
+and, as it grazed his arm, one of its ragged edges had torn through the
+cloth and touched the flesh only just enough to break the skin and draw
+a little blood. Sile could fairly say he was "wounded," and no more, and
+Yellow Pine remarked,
+
+"Reckon we won't send ye to the hospital for that; but I'm all-fired
+glad it didn't go any nigher. It's jest on a line to where it would ha'
+knocked yer arm off, if it had struck onto the bone. It's the narrerest
+kind of an escape."
+
+Judge Parks had nothing more to say, for some reason, and seemed willing
+that Sile should go right on with further particulars of the day.
+
+"Two Arrows is right," said Pine. "He'd know a war-party, sure. It's war
+with us, anyhow, and there isn't but one thing to be done. The men must
+knock off from the house, and come right down and block this 'ere
+opening with logs and rocks. We can make the best kind of a rifle-pit.
+Only leave room for one man, or for one hoss at a time, to get in or
+out."
+
+"That's it," said the judge. "Now, Sile, come along. You must let the
+men see what you've been up to. They'll know exactly what it means."
+
+Sile had a curious sense of bashfulness about it, but he followed his
+father, and in a few minutes more the rough, bearded, red-shirted
+fellows were giving him three of the most ringing cheers he had ever
+heard. Ha-ha-pah-no and Na-tee-kah looked at him with something that was
+half wonder. They could not have believed it, but for the horse and the
+lance, and the rifle and the belt. Here was the Red-head, a mere
+pale-face boy, bringing in trophies of which a great warrior might have
+been proud. Na-tee-kah had a sort of notion that Two Arrows must have
+done it somehow, until well assured that her brother had not been
+present, and that the Red-head had not taken the scalp of the slain
+Apache. She had heard that the pale-face warriors sometimes neglected
+that duty, but could not well understand why, even when Ha-ha-pah-no
+explained to her that it was "bad medicine" for a white man to scalp
+anybody.
+
+The situation called for something more than cheers, however, and the
+miners hurried to the mouth of the notch. To pack it breast-high with
+fragments of wood and stone was no great matter, and the breastwork was
+finished in time for a late supper.
+
+"Tell ye what, jedge," remarked one of the men, "if I was a redskin I
+wouldn't be in a hurry to ride up to that there bar, with a half a dozen
+rifles peepin' over it. Reckon it'd take the cleanest kind of grit. A
+feller could stand behind it and pepper away, and be a'most safe agin
+anything short of cannon."
+
+The wagons and other things were left as they were, and the entire notch
+was a perfectly safe corral for the animals. All the human beings moved
+their bivouac down towards the barrier they had made, leaving the fires
+behind them.
+
+"They're all right, there," said Pine, "and we needn't kindle any down
+hereaway to tell jest where we are."
+
+There was sense in that, and one sentry was as good as a dozen to keep
+watch at the narrow entrance left, for even that was securely closed
+until there should be a good reason for opening it.
+
+Sile found himself the hero of the camp, and that the scratch upon his
+arm excused him from guard duty. At first he was well pleased to lie
+down and go to sleep, after the severe fatigue and excitement of his
+great ride. Never before had he raced it after such a fashion, and every
+bone and muscle felt the effects of the long strain. He saw, too, that
+everybody else was taking the matter with perfect coolness. All those
+miners had been in tight places more than once, and they had great faith
+in the prudence of redskins about charging upon white riflemen hidden
+behind rocks. Sile ate a hearty supper. In fact, he was compelled at
+last to be very positive with Ha-ha-pah-no. She would have gone right on
+cooking for him until morning if he had let her, and so would
+Na-tee-kah. They were positively proud of the privilege of bringing him
+his coffee. He was assured that the horse and weapons of the Apache
+warrior were his own personal property, and he examined them again and
+again with a sense of ownership that he had never felt for anything
+else. He could not tell why, until Jonas remarked to him,
+
+"If you hadn't pulled straight, your plunder'd be in the 'Pache camp
+'bout now, scalp and all. It was jest a question of grit and shootin'.
+I'm powerful glad you made out to throw yer lead to the right spot."
+
+So was Sile, but it was not easy, somehow, for him to make up his mind
+that he had really killed anybody. He found a queer idea in his mind
+several times that before long that Apache warrior would wake up and
+wonder what had become of his horse and his weapons. Not long after
+supper he curled up in his blanket at the foot of a tree, and in a few
+minutes he was soundly asleep. He did not hear his father say to Yellow
+Pine, as the two bent over him,
+
+"My brave boy!"
+
+Nor did he hear Pine grumble,
+
+"If he hasn't earned a good snooze, then nobody has. Tell ye what,
+jedge, that feller'll be guv'ner of a State one of these days. I'd vote
+for him. I'd like to have seen him 'changing shots with that there
+redskin."
+
+They moved away, and the judge remarked,
+
+"We are safe enough for to-night, but they'll find us to-morrow."
+
+"Maybe, maybe not. I can't quite make it out as to what could bring 'em
+away up here. Two Arrows told Sile they was a war-party, and if that's
+so, they must have been licked somewhere. They'd never have cut it for
+these ranges without somebody was after 'em."
+
+"Perhaps so. We'll see. Anyhow, we can keep a sharp lookout."
+
+There was no danger that any sentry would sleep on his post that night,
+but all the first part and the middle of it went by as peacefully as if
+the valley were uninhabited.
+
+Sile slept and slept, and when at last he opened his eyes, he could not
+have told why he did so. The stars were shining. The night air was crisp
+and chilly, but he was warm under his blanket. It took him almost a
+minute to gather his thoughts and understand where he really was. That
+was partly because he had been sleeping heavily, and partly because, at
+the very last, he had dreamed of being at home, and of leading a
+remarkable horse into the sitting-room to show it to his mother.
+
+It was a strange place to wake up in, and he could dimly see the forms
+of other men, rolled in blankets, lying near, each with a rifle lying by
+him ready for prompt use.
+
+"They won't be taken by surprise," said Sile to himself. "I'm going down
+for a look at the barrier. I've lain still long enough."
+
+He felt a little stiff when he first rose to his feet, but it passed
+away when he stretched himself and began to walk. His left arm pained
+him more than he had expected, and he found it slightly swollen. It was
+not precisely like the same scratch made in any other way, and he was
+glad that there was no more of it. Still, he hardly knew what he had
+that he valued more highly than that light hurt upon his arm. It had
+made a sort of soldier of him. It was a promotion, and he vaguely hoped
+that it would leave a scar. Then he half wished that the scar might come
+out upon his face, where it would not be forever covered up by his
+coat-sleeve.
+
+"My new horse is in the corral, and I couldn't pick him out now. My
+lance and things are in the wagon. I'll go and have a look at the
+barrier. I'm feeling tip-top."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+FROM BOW TO RIFLE
+
+
+Leaning over the upper log of the barrier, rifle in hand, and peering
+out upon the starlit slope beyond him, stood the form of Jonas, the
+miner. Not a sound came to him from the mists and shadows of the valley,
+and he was just remarking, aloud,
+
+"It's as quiet as a cornfield," when a voice at his elbow explained,
+
+"Hist! Ha-ha-pah-no--sh-sh!" and Na-tee-kah dropped upon the ground, and
+pressed her little round ear against it. So, almost instantly, did
+Ha-ha-pah-no, and he heard Sile saying,
+
+"Their ears are better than yours or mine if they can hear anything."
+
+"Didn't know there was one of ye nigh me," said Jonas. "That's the way
+for a feller to lose his hair--looking too hard in one direction while
+somebody comes up behind him. No, Sile, I haven't heerd a thing."
+
+Na-tee-kah sprang to her feet.
+
+"Horse come. Ugh!" and she held up her hand for silence, while
+Ha-ha-pah-no also arose, listening intently.
+
+"Indian ears for it," said Jonas. "'Pears to me I can hear something now
+myself."
+
+"I can't, then," said another voice. It was that of a sleepy miner, who
+had waked up to follow Sile, just as he had been awakened by even the
+noiseless movements of the squaws.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Jonas.
+
+It was the sound of galloping, and then a shrill whoop.
+
+"Two Arrows!" screamed Na-tee-kah. "'Pache get him!"
+
+Jonas had already thrown down the logs of wood in the opening, and now
+he shouted,
+
+"Rifles, boys! Ready!"
+
+There was a great shout from the bivouac behind them, but it seemed
+almost no time before a pony and his rider dashed into dim view before
+them, followed by a larger shadow, from which came whoop after whoop.
+
+"Take the hind one. Give it to him," shouted Jonas, as a streak of fire
+sprang from his own rifle-muzzle. Two other shots followed, as if there
+were any chance of hitting a galloping horseman in such a half darkness
+as that. Hit or no hit, one Apache warrior was so utterly astounded that
+he drew rein, all but throwing his horse upon his haunches, and the
+pony-rider he was pursuing wheeled sharply to the right. Half a minute
+later and all would have been over with Two Arrows, in all probability,
+but, as matters had now turned, it was his enemy who had made a blunder.
+He sat for several precious seconds almost motionless, although not a
+shot had touched him, and by so doing he put himself up for a target at
+very short arrow range. The next instant he was dashing wildly away into
+the darkness, for the horse had an arrow in his flank to spur him, and
+the brave himself had a similar token of the skill of Two Arrows
+projecting from his right thigh.
+
+"Sile," said Jonas, "he got it. You can tell that by the yell he gave."
+
+"Come on in," shouted Sile. "There may be more of 'em. We're all up and
+ready for 'em."
+
+It looked like it, as man after man came hurrying forward, but Two
+Arrows quieted them on that head. He had been sent forward by Long Bear
+to announce the coming of the Nez Percés, and he had encountered the
+Apache less than half a mile from the notch. It had been a close race,
+although he had a fresh pony and a good start. Any hurt to his pride on
+account of arriving in that precise manner, followed instead of
+following, was more than cured by the undoubted fact that he had sent an
+arrow into his pursuer.
+
+"There wasn't really any show for bullet-work," said Jonas, "but lead'll
+hurt jest as bad in the dark, in case it gits there."
+
+"All come," said Na-tee-kah. "Good. Two Arrows great brave now. Strike
+warrior. Fight a heap."
+
+Judge Parks was not sorry to hear of such an addition to his little
+garrison, as the Nez Percé warriors could be fully depended upon to
+fight well for their ponies and lives. It was not a great while before
+the head of their cavalcade came out of the shadows, and deeper and more
+sonorous whoops answered that of Two Arrows.
+
+"Big Tongue," said Ha-ha-pah-no. "Heap mouth!"
+
+There surely was one whoop that seemed to have swallowed several others,
+and Jonas remarked,
+
+"That feller could do all the loose yelling for a small tribe. Hark to
+him, now."
+
+"Big Tongue great brave!" said Ha-ha-pah-no, tartly. "'Pache hear him,
+'Pache go dead. Run."
+
+In a few minutes more the Nez Percé ponies were squeezing their packs
+through the narrow entrance of the notch, and a succession of approving
+grunts from Long Bear testified the satisfaction he felt at getting into
+so secure a fort. He perfectly understood the value and uses of that
+barrier. When daylight came he again said "Ugh!" several times while he
+was examining the stone wall and the other evidences of the skill and
+zeal of his pale-face friends.
+
+There was no more sleeping done in the notch, but there was an immense
+amount of very early cooking and eating, not to speak of the smoking and
+consultation, and the very general expression of a bad opinion of the
+entire Apache nation. They and their works, past, present, and to come,
+were condemned unsparingly. At the same time their fighting qualities
+were freely admitted, and with them the certainty that no Apache
+war-party would turn away from a bit of war so well begun as was this.
+
+The sun arose, but almost to the astonishment of Sile, as well as the
+Nez Percés, the hardy miners behaved very much as if they had no war
+whatever on their hands.
+
+"Them 'Paches'll come and go," said Jonas, "but we've got to have this
+'ere wall finished."
+
+At it they went, well assured that the barrier and all the land near it
+would be well watched, and that it was an easy thing to do to pick up a
+rifle if an alarm should come.
+
+Sile felt less interest in the mine, somehow. The story of his exploit
+had been told, of course, to his Indian friends, and he could but see
+that it had made him an object of respectful admiration. There was not a
+warrior among them who would not have been proud of such a feather as
+that victory, but the effect upon Two Arrows was peculiar. He had
+regarded himself as Sile's superior in all things which did not belong
+especially to a young pale-face. It had not occurred to him that Sile
+was or ever could become a "great brave." Some of the "blue-coats" were,
+he knew, but Sile was not a blue-coat. He had heard stories of the
+prowess of other pale-faces, but Sile was a mere boy, and dreadfully
+green to the ways of the plains and mountains. He could not think of one
+boy of his band who really knew less of the things most important to be
+known, except rifle-shooting. His pride was touched in a tender spot,
+for although he was sure he had sent an arrow into an Apache, he had
+nothing to show for it. Na-tee-kah was enormously proud of that arrow,
+and Ha-ha-pah-no was compelled to remind her that her hero brother had
+brought in neither scalp nor horse, and had saved his own by the timely
+rifle practice of Sile and the men at the gap. For all that, Na-tee-kah
+had a vivid persuasion that, if the pale-faces had not interfered and
+driven away the Apache, there would have been more glory earned by the
+young chief of the Nez Percés. She could not be dissatisfied with Sile,
+however. After a brief consultation with his father, the Red-head went
+to the wagon and brought out the rifle he had won and with it a box of
+cartridges. It was a capital weapon, in good condition, and Sile showed
+it to Two Arrows with a great glow on his face and with a sense of
+standing up uncommonly straight. Several braves gathered to look at it
+and to declare it "heap good gun."
+
+Two Arrows held it for a moment, with a look which did not need any
+interpreter. It was intensely wistful, and had a quick flash of keen
+jealousy in it. What was there that he could not do with such a splendid
+tool of destruction as that, instead of his lance and bow? He was
+nothing but a poor red youngster, after all, compelled to wait, he could
+not guess how long, before he could hope to be armed as a complete
+brave. He held out the rifle to Sile dejectedly, but then something like
+a shiver went all over him, for Sile only pushed it back, saying,
+
+"No; Two Arrows keep it. Take present. Good friend." And then he held
+out the little waterproof box of copper cartridges of the size called
+for by that rifle.
+
+Two Arrows required a breath or so before he could believe that the
+thing was a reality, and then he broke out into a yell of delight.
+
+One-eye, standing behind him, began to bark vociferously, although
+nobody had given him anything except unlimited bones.
+
+Every Nez Percé brave present deemed it his duty to shake hands with
+Sile, and Long Bear was summoned at once to do the same. Two Arrows
+found himself terribly short of words to tell how he felt about it, but
+he flatly refused to make a trial of that gun then and there. He felt
+such a dancing in his head and in his fingers that he was hardly sure he
+could hit the side of the mountain, and he did not care to disgrace his
+marksmanship before so many crack shots. It even occurred to him that he
+was not likely to come out of a duel on horseback as well as Sile until
+he should have had some practice. He did not know how steadily Sile had
+insisted on trying several shots every day since the mining expedition
+started. At all events he had mounted one round more in the ladder of
+his ambition, and had a better prospect for the next.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE APACHES HAVE COME
+
+
+Just as the sun was rising that morning, an altogether used-up horse
+came staggering into the awaking camp of the Apache war-party. On the
+horse was a warrior who had been sent out, with others, on scouting duty
+the previous day, and he now seemed nearly as fatigued as did the animal
+he rode. He had strength for a whoop whose meaning startled all who
+heard it, and in a minute more it was understood by most of them that
+the horse had been so badly tired out by one arrow, and the brave by
+another; but they did not know of whom they were speaking when they
+gruffly remarked,
+
+"Two Arrows. Ugh! Nez Percé."
+
+The baffled scout was unable to testify to the presence of white men,
+although he could aver that he had retreated from several busy rifles.
+He had deemed it his duty to ride back with his news and for another
+horse. It would be a good while before he could do much walking, and the
+horse which had carried him in must be abandoned, whether it should live
+or die.
+
+There was nothing to dispirit such a company in the prospect of more
+plunder, many ponies and scalps, and an easy victory over a hunting
+party trespassing upon their acknowledged range. They did but eat
+breakfast more rapidly and push forward at once. The idea was yet strong
+upon them that they were pursued, but not one of their rearward scouts
+had come in, and a sense of false security had begun to creep over all
+but the very grayest heads among them. Even of these not one dreamed how
+dangerously near was the steady advance of Captain Grover and his
+blue-coats.
+
+It is an old proverb of sea-fighting that "a stern chase is a long
+chase," and it is nearly as true on land, but the cavalry had pushed
+along with steady persistency, in a thoroughly business-like and
+scientific economy of time and horses. They were therefore in pretty
+good condition, men and animals. As Captain Grover remarked so it had
+been:
+
+"I know about how fast the redskins can travel. They stole a whole grist
+of slow stock and that measures their gait."
+
+However swift might be their best, the Apaches had gone no farther any
+day than the slowest half-dozen of their plunder. Captain Grover was
+therefore almost justified in a firm conviction he expressed that
+morning:
+
+"Now for it, boys. We shall be among 'em before sunset."
+
+On pushed the cavalry with enthusiasm, but at the same hour the Apaches
+were also pressing forward with increasing eagerness. They were no
+longer in one body. All their drove of stolen quadrupeds and their own
+superfluous ponies made up a sort of rear-guard, driven and cared for by
+about a dozen of the less distinguished braves, with orders to make as
+good speed as possible. The remainder of the force, full of whooping and
+yelling and a great hunger for glory and ponies, rode forward to find
+the Nez Percés. It could not be hard to do that, with so clear an idea
+as to the locality of at least several of them, but there was a surprise
+ready.
+
+They had hardly ridden an hour when the foremost warriors made the air
+ring with whoops of wrath, and in a moment more the word "pale-face" was
+passing from rider to rider. They had found the victim of Sile's
+marksmanship, and the fact that he had not been scalped put away the
+idea that he had fallen before a Nez Percé. The trail of the two horses
+leading away to the left was plainly marked and could be followed, and
+there was no reason for special caution in so open a country. Still, the
+onward movement from that point was made in a more compact body and in
+something like silence. The trail before them led in the precise
+direction indicated by the brave shot by Sile, and the presence of both
+Nez Percés and pale-faces in that valley was of itself a sort of enigma.
+Word was left for the rear-guard to halt at the spot where the body lay
+until rejoined by the main force.
+
+The garrison at the notch was ignorant of all this, but while the
+house-builders toiled at their wall with undiminished energy Long Bear
+sent out several of his best braves to scout around as far as might seem
+safe, and there was no danger of any surprise. There was one effect of
+all this even now to be seen in the sides of that stone wall. Windows
+had formed a part of the original plan, of course, but not nearly so
+many shot-holes.
+
+"You see," said Jonas to Yellow Pine, "if any hostiles should ever make
+out to git inside the notch, this 'ere'd be the best kind of fort. Them
+holes are all big enough to poke a muzzle through."
+
+"We'll have a stockade, some day," said Pine; "and we'll put another
+down at the gap, reg'lar fort fashion, with a gate and loop-holes."
+
+Just then a whoop rang out from the braves at the gap and was followed
+by a chorus of them.
+
+"I'd call it!" said Pine. "Knock off work, boys. Time's come."
+
+Not quite, but a brave had ridden swiftly in with notice of the approach
+of the Apaches, and all the other scouts were fast following his good
+example. The first whoop had been given by the Big Tongue from behind
+the largest rocks of the barrier, but he was soon calmly walking up and
+down outside, as if waiting for the whole Apache nation, and also ready
+to be admired by somebody. One-eye was also beyond the barrier, for some
+reason, but he came in at the call of Two Arrows. There was no danger
+but what the Big Tongue would come in without any calling.
+
+Na-tee-kah and Ha-ha-pah-no had done very little that morning but recite
+to their Nez Percé friends and relatives the wonders of their visit in
+the pale-face camp, and exhibit their rich store of ornaments and other
+presents. They had also combed and brushed each other's hair in a way
+that excited no little envy. They were yet busy at it when the voice of
+the Big Tongue was first heard at the barrier, and every squaw knew what
+it signified.
+
+"Two Arrows," exclaimed Na-tee-kah, "has rifle now; kill heap."
+
+"Big Tongue great brave," said Ha-ha-pah-no. "Shoot mouth; 'Pache heap
+die."
+
+The horses, mules, and ponies of both Nez Percés and miners were all
+driven by the squaws away up the notch, under some trees, to be as
+secure as might be from stray bullets, if any should be fired. The
+squaws themselves were generally very willing to be as safe as were the
+animals; but Na-tee-kah's dusky cheeks were almost red with excitement.
+In spite of all prohibition, she broke away from under the trees and
+darted off towards the rocks on the side of the notch opposite the mine.
+It was only a minute before Ha-ha-pah-no followed her, with no idea of
+bringing her back, whatever she said to the rest on starting.
+
+"See fight. Squaw shoot, too, sometime. Na-tee-kah heap brave."
+
+Na-tee-kah did not utter a sound until she had gained a spot behind a
+huge bowlder, from which she could peer out and down, and see what was
+going on at the barrier and beyond it. She felt well paid for her
+trouble. The braves of the Nez Percés were all there or behind the rocky
+fragments on either side, and mingled with them here and there were the
+red shirts and slouched hats of the miners. The Big Tongue was no longer
+parading over the slope in front of the gap. He had even cut short an
+uncommonly fine whoop in his retreat to a place as safe as that occupied
+by Na-tee-kah or Ha-ha-pah-no.
+
+There were excellent reasons for such a retreat, for several scores of
+Apaches were now riding back and forth, just out of good rifle-range, as
+if they were a little in doubt as to what they had better do next. Not
+an Apache among them had an idea how many might be the rifles among
+those rocks, but all were sure that they were there. It was just as
+Jonas had said, and Yellow Pine. It required an immense amount of
+courage to ride up to hidden sharpshooters, and the Apaches were
+disposed to whoop a good deal before they tried the experiment. Their
+head chief had commanded that there should be no random firing, and now
+he was disposed to try what could be done with a "talk." One solitary
+brave rode forward a distance in advance of his comrades, dismounted,
+laid down his rifle and lance, took off his pistol-belt ostentatiously,
+held up his hands wide open to declare himself unarmed, reached out his
+right hand with the palm up to say that he was peaceful, and then walked
+slowly forward.
+
+"Wants to get near enough to see what he can see," said Yellow Pine.
+"Snake trick. I'll go out and meet him, jedge."
+
+"No, Pine, I don't want you to run any risk."
+
+"Risk? Not a bit of it. I say, Jonas, I'll let him come into good fair
+range. Keep him covered. If he tries any bad game I'll just drop flat."
+
+"That's what he'll do next thing," said Jonas, as he rested his rifle
+over the log in front of him, and it seemed as if every other miner at
+once followed his example.
+
+"Go ahead then, Pine," said the judge; "see what he wants."
+
+"For that matter, jedge," said Pine, "I'd as lief as not try a
+hand-to-hand fight with any redskin in that lot."
+
+He left his weapons behind him as ostentatiously as the Apache had done,
+handing them back over the barrier after stepping out, and walked
+forward rapidly, so that he did not let his conference turn into too
+close an "examination."
+
+[Illustration: HIS RIGHT HAND WITH THE PALM UP TO SHOW THAT HE WAS
+PEACEFUL]
+
+The keen eyes of the warrior were searching every cranny of the rocks as
+well as they could, when Yellow Pine drew near and held out his hand.
+
+"How?" said Pine.
+
+"How? Where Nez Percé?"
+
+Pine answered by a sweep of his hand towards the notch, and added,
+
+"'Pache chief want pony? want scalp? Go other place. Too much heap
+shoot; kill 'em all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+STIRRING TIMES
+
+
+The idea of a great fight about to come off had quite turned the heads
+of Sile and Two Arrows, and the later was aching all over with anxiety
+to try his new rifle. They had found good places to shoot from. Even the
+judge did not hesitate a moment about bidding Sile to do his duty,
+although he had a pretty strong conviction that there would not be much
+to do right away. Na-tee-kah had singled out that pair as the particular
+braves in whose conduct she was interested, but had no doubt that her
+brother would win more glory than the Red-head, now that he had so good
+a rifle.
+
+The circumstances had even more completely turned the hot heads of the
+young Apache braves left in charge of their too numerous drove of
+horses. Every soul of them was crazy to be at the front and take part in
+whatever might turn up. They all seemed to drift naturally a little in
+that direction, and kept no kind of lookout, leaving their precious
+charge to take care of itself. The horses, therefore, at once began to
+take advantage of the grass.
+
+This state of things continued, and grew worse and worse every minute,
+until a good long hour after the main body had moved away along Sile's
+trail towards the notch. Then, altogether unexpectedly, but as by one
+impulse, all the Apache horse-guard gave a sudden start and turned their
+heads in one direction.
+
+Over the crest of the nearest knoll, stirring and clear and sweet, came
+the sound of a cavalry bugle. It was the signal to "charge," and was
+followed by the swift rush of Captain Grover and his men. In an instant
+they were between the feeding quadrupeds and their astonished keepers,
+and it was all in vain for the young hot-heads in their amazement to
+attempt to rally. One only wheeled his pony at once and rode away at the
+top of his speed. The nine or ten who dashed in the other direction
+suddenly all drew rein as they discovered the odds against them. A line
+of iron veterans, thirty strong, was thundering forward, and not an
+Apache was fool enough to fire a shot and be cut down for it.
+
+There was just enough of bewildered, leaderless indecision to settle the
+matter. The sabres swept flashingly around the squad of redskins, and
+all they had to do was to surrender. It is a mere novelist's blunder to
+suppose and to write that red men have not sense enough to give it up
+when there is no use in fighting any more. They can do it as readily as
+any white man in the world, and the reason why they do not do it more
+frequently is because they generally keep a good chance to run away, and
+make a treaty afterwards as to what presents they are to have for making
+peace. There was no time given the young braves to strike a bargain.
+They were all disarmed, and then, dreadfully to their disgust, they were
+all dismounted and tied up.
+
+"The plunder'll do well enough where it is," said Captain Grover, as he
+detailed Garry and a guard of four men to watch the prisoners. "If any
+of those chaps gets loose you'll have to shoot him. Men, by fours, left!
+Forward!"
+
+The pony-rider who escaped was sure to carry the news of the disaster,
+and of the arrival of the blue-coats, but several things could happen
+before the Apache chief received it. He had no spy-glass, and he was
+eagerly waiting such information as might be obtained by the brave
+standing face to face with Yellow Pine.
+
+That very cunning Apache found himself talking under difficulties. He
+could see distinctly that there were more than a few rifles at the
+barrier, but he could get no farther. The tall pale-face in front of him
+kept back any other information than that all the Apaches in this world
+or any other would be killed in case of an attack then and there. He
+even referred to Sile's exploit as an example, and to the lesson given
+by Two Arrows to the scout, and all the wild blood in the Apache brave
+was set boiling by that somewhat imprudent reference. He was a large,
+powerfully built warrior, and he had been as truthful as could be
+expected when he signified that he was unarmed. He kept up the idea of a
+"flag of truce" talk until sure he could gain no more by it, and then he
+uttered a shrill whoop and stooped, quick as a flash, for a long knife
+hidden in his leggings. He meant to carry back the scalp of Yellow Pine
+as a trophy of that conversation, but had not asked anybody how well
+Pine could box. The latter had no time to draw any weapon except his
+fist, but that was a hard one, and it struck the Apache on the side of
+his head as he was rising, knife in hand. Over and over he rolled, while
+Pine threw himself flat upon the earth, at the same moment digging both
+hands into the pockets of his pantaloons. His enemy recovered himself
+instantly and sprang to his feet with another whoop, lifting his long,
+glittering knife for a rush upon the prostrate pale-face. It might have
+been a perilous rush, for Pine's hands came right out of his pockets,
+and each held a short-barrelled "Derringer" pistol, ready cocked. They
+are terrible weapons, but the miner had no occasion to use either of
+them. The line of the barrier and of the adjacent rocks seemed to dance
+with blue flashes and with puffs of white smoke. Within three seconds
+not less than a score of rattling reports awoke the echoes of the notch,
+and every blue tube they came from had been aimed by a good marksman.
+After all was over, the prevalent opinion was that not one of them had
+missed. At all events Yellow Pine was safe to jump up and run for the
+barrier, followed by hasty shots from startled and galloping horsemen,
+all as useless as so many pebbles. His arrival was greeted by all the
+shouting and whooping which could possibly be performed by the red and
+white garrison of the notch, aided by One-eye with a vigor that shook
+him all over. Even then, however, the voice of the Big Tongue could be
+distinguished from the rest.
+
+If the volume of sound did nothing else it deeply impressed the mind of
+the Apache chief with an idea of the strength of the force opposed to
+him. So had the promptness and number and accuracy of the rifle-shots
+which had prevented him from getting any report from his too treacherous
+"flag of truce" brave. As for him, Na-tee-kah had been watching Two
+Arrows and had seen the Apache fall just as his rifle went off. That was
+enough, and she was again proud of her brother. It was in vain for
+Ha-ha-pah-no to say,
+
+"Ugh! Heap shoot. All kill him. Go dead a heap."
+
+She as well as Na-tee-kah was taking every opportunity for practising
+all the small English words she could pick up, and some of her greatest
+successes would have puzzled a dictionary.
+
+The Apaches were all but silent and drew back a little at the end of
+their burst of angry whooping and useless shooting. They drew back still
+farther because of a steady whizzing of bullets from the barrier. It was
+too far for good marksmanship, but the rifles made nowadays will send a
+piece of lead a mile and hurt something with it.
+
+Suddenly a second burst of angry yells arose among the baffled marauders
+as a pony-rider in a great hurry dashed in among them, shouting forth
+the news of the arrival of the blue-coats and the loss of the drove and
+its protectors. Here was a blow indeed, and the escaped brave's estimate
+of the number of the cavalry he had run away from was very liberal. The
+Apache chief was necessarily a good captain, fully able to understand
+how bad it would be for him to be placed between two fires. The ground
+in front of the notch was therefore no place for him to fight in, and he
+did not know what precious minutes he had already been wasting. He threw
+away ten more in a sort of consultation with his wisest warriors, and at
+the same time his whole force rode up the valley a short distance. That
+move gave them the cover of some trees and took them out of range of
+bullets from the barrier, and at that very moment Judge Parks was
+startled by a yell from Sile.
+
+"What are you doing up there?" he shouted, for Sile had clambered away
+up among the rocks of the lodge and stood upon a sort of pinnacle,
+spy-glass in hand.
+
+"Cavalry, father! They are coming. Cavalry--"
+
+"Come down!"
+
+"Right in this direction. Riding hard. Hurrah!"
+
+The new rifle of Two Arrows could not have won him the glory of that
+discovery and announcement. Once more the peculiar advantages of
+pale-faces over red men were forced upon him, but somehow it did but
+stir up his ambition, and with it a quick, daring impulse. He sprang
+away up the valley for a horse. He rushed in among the gathered animals
+of the corral, and boldly picked out his father's best and swiftest
+mustang, a beast that could run like the wind. He asked for no saddle,
+and the bridle went on as if by magic.
+
+Sile came down from his perch at a rate that risked his neck, and made a
+report which drew from Yellow Pine,
+
+"I'd call it--Jedge, if we could only let them fellers know we're here,
+it would be wuth a heap."
+
+Before all who echoed that wish had finished speaking Two Arrows came
+dashing towards the barrier, all ready for the errand.
+
+"Give the youngster three cheers!" shouted Yellow Pine. "Hurrah for
+him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+A DARING RIDE
+
+
+For the moment there was not one Apache horseman lingering within reach
+of the sharpshooters at the gap, and it was possible to get away from it
+unseen. All peril would come afterwards, but there was a vast amount of
+it, and the proposed errand of Two Arrows called for unlimited courage.
+His light weight upon a fresh racer gave him some advantage over heavy
+warriors upon horses already hard ridden, but this fact did not cover
+the whole question by any means, for a bullet will travel faster than
+the swiftest mustang. Sile did his best to communicate every fact that
+his spy-glass had given him; Long Bear said "Ugh!" with a deep and
+expressive intonation; the logs were removed from the entrance; and then
+Na-tee-kah's heart beat terribly, for she saw her hero brother dash
+forth all alone, she could not guess why nor whither. Then there was
+another sudden commotion, for Yellow Pine shouted, and Long Bear echoed
+it in his own tongue,
+
+"Mount, men! Mount and be ready, every mother's son of ye! I'm jest
+going to back that there young catamount if it costs me my hair!"
+
+There was the swiftest kind of saddling and mounting, and not a Nez
+Percé boy old enough to draw a bow was willing to be left behind. When,
+therefore, the whole force rode out upon the slope in front of the
+notch, it looked a good deal stronger than it really was. All that work
+required many minutes, and during all of these the daring young
+messenger had been doing capitally.
+
+Leaving the gap, he wheeled his fleet mustang to the right and dashed
+away until he deemed himself within reach of a small grove of trees,
+around which he could sweep back into the right course to reach the
+cavalry. It was an acute enough calculation, but out of that very bit of
+bushy timber came first a brace of rifle-bullets and then a pair of
+mounted Apaches, as soon as these believed that they had let him go far
+enough. That is, they rode out to cut off his return, and they both
+failed to do him or his horse any harm. It was a race now, with the
+chances against the pursuers, and Two Arrows sent back a derisive whoop
+as he struck out straight for what he believed to be his mark. He
+understood in an instant that he had escaped the main body of his
+enemies, but there was no telling when he might meet one of their
+smaller squads. He felt in every fibre of his body that he was now armed
+as a warrior, and was doing the work of a warrior and of an uncommonly
+daring brave. His heart beat with fierce delight and hope, and his very
+mustang seemed to feel the excitement, and went forward with long, eager
+bounds. The wind was in his face, and now it brought him something. It
+was a faint sound, and far away, but it was the bugle-note which bade
+Captain Grover's men to change their trot to a gallop.
+
+The little force of cavalry had taken upon them no small risk in dashing
+forward, now that they had a better knowledge of the strength of their
+opponents. It was almost rashness, but it was such a facing of odds as
+our gallant soldiers are all the while doing. There was nothing
+exceptional about it, terrible as have been the disasters now and then
+resulting. Captain Grover determined to gain whatever might be gained by
+promptly following up his first success, and so he had well used all the
+minutes the Apache chief was wasting. At about the time when the latter
+had decided that there must be an effort made to recover the lost
+plunder, unless the cavalry should prove too numerous, Captain Grover
+had ridden far enough to make good the military plan of a young Nez
+Percé chief. His own spy-glass was at work from every rising ground he
+came to, and now it brought an exclamation from him:
+
+"What's up now? One chased by two? Forward! Gallop!"
+
+Two Apache braves, already very sure they could not catch the rider they
+were chasing, wheeled quickly and rode in the opposite direction, and
+in a few moments more Two Arrows was rapidly explaining the situation to
+Captain Grover. It was a very plain one, and not a second was wasted in
+considering it. Again the word was "forward," and the remaining distance
+to be travelled was not great. The decision of the Apaches to advance
+was likely to make it shorter, but that was an unpleasant time for the
+chief in command of those unlucky red men. Just as two of his braves
+came in to inform him that a messenger from the men among the rocks had
+reached the cavalry, another announced that all the pale-faces and Nez
+Percés had come out from the rocks to fight and were "heap strong." Nor
+was that the whole of it, for one of his scouts from the rear dashed up
+with the news that yet another party of Nez Percés was coming, he did
+not know how many. These were the fellows sent through the pass for the
+"cached" property, but what Apache could say how many more might follow?
+or how many more blue-coated veterans might be at hand?
+
+It looked for all the world as if that enterprising band of Apache
+"business men" were surrounded and trapped. They had already lost all
+the proceeds of their season's hard work, and the rest of their stock in
+trade, of all sorts, was pretty sure to follow. More consultation was
+absolutely necessary, and before it was over Sile could announce, from
+his perch upon the rock,
+
+"Coming! I can see Two Arrows."
+
+Then there was a cheering, and Na-tee-kah felt all but proud of the
+noise made by the Big Tongue--there was so very much of it.
+
+"Forward, men!" shouted Judge Parks. "We must be on hand. Come down,
+Sile. Keep near _me_."
+
+Sile was down and mounted in a moment, but there was to be no great
+battle that day. The Apache "council of war" lasted until it could hear
+the cavalry bugle and the distant whoop of the Big Tongue. It could not
+hear the howl of One-eye, for that brave animal was sitting in the very
+entrance of the barrier guarding the notch, all alone except for the
+squaws. It was better to go upon any reservation, and to promise any
+amount and degree of good behavior, than to spend the remainder of that
+fine day in being shot and sabred. So the council decided, and so, in
+due and dignified form, they announced to Captain Grover, before he had
+an opportunity to bid his veterans charge.
+
+The official duty of the captain, after that, was to disarm his
+captives, the weapons to be all returned upon reaching the reservation,
+and to order them at once into a camp by themselves, under a guard. Word
+was sent to Garry and his men to move the quadrupeds down the river as
+fast as possible, the prisoners there being untied and sent to their
+main body. Rapid orders were given, and were mingled with as rapid
+conversations with Judge Parks, Yellow Pine, and Long Bear.
+
+"Where's that messenger?" suddenly exclaimed Captain Grover, after he
+had listened to the facts as to the sending of Two Arrows. There was a
+glow upon the brave soldier's face, and he was unbuckling the flap of
+one of his holsters, for he was yet in the saddle.
+
+Two Arrows was summoned and came forward, and a great many eyes were
+upon him.
+
+"Young brave!" said Captain Grover emphatically. "I never heard of a
+pluckier volunteer in all my life. Take that; keep your head level,
+that's all. You've more courage than you've any real need of."
+
+"That" was a handsome silver-mounted army revolver. Given in that way it
+was a mark of distinction for a great chief to be proud of, and Long
+Bear, indeed, was nearly as proud as was Two Arrows.
+
+"There, Sile," said his father; "see that you do as well with your
+advantages as that Nez Percé boy has done with his."
+
+"I will, father; but why could he not have some more? What is to hinder
+him from going to school? There's all my gold, now, in the wagon; I'd
+spend a good deal of it."
+
+"Sile, my boy, I've been thinking of it. We will do it. It's a good
+thing. The girl too."
+
+It was time now for Captain Grover to ride in and see the notch and the
+mine, and to get the best dinner the miners and Ha-ha-pah-no could cook
+for him and his men. Then it was time for Na-tee-kah to go nearly wild
+with pride over her brother and his revolver. After that there was a
+long consultation between Long Bear and his children and Judge Parks and
+Sile. Two Arrows seemed to be inclined to say very little at first. He
+sat with his new rifle across his lap, and his priceless revolver
+resting upon that, and One-eye came and sat down beside him. Long Bear
+himself seemed to be in doubt as his pale-face friends urged upon him
+the advantages of their offer. He was hardly able to see what good there
+could be in the learning of the white men for a red horseman of the
+plains; but at last Two Arrows motioned to Sile for his spy-glass,
+hanging at his side. He took it and looked through it at the distant
+mountains, and then turned to Long Bear and pointed at them, saying,
+
+"Look! See!"
+
+"Ugh!" said the old chief, "see heap."
+
+"Now look. See," said Two Arrows, "see big heap."
+
+"Ugh! Big medicine," said Long Bear, handing the glass to Sile, but Two
+Arrows arose and stood proudly erect, rifle in hand.
+
+"Will you go?" asked Sile.
+
+"Go," said Two Arrows. "Good friend. Go. Got Nez Percé eye now; want
+pale-face eye."
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Long Bear; "what Na-tee-kah say?"
+
+The question was put to her, but it was hardly needful, after she found
+that Two Arrows was to go. She was willing to learn anything he did, and
+she was not even daunted by quick mental vision of a white lady with her
+bonnet on. She would even wear the dress of a pale-face squaw if Two
+Arrows would put on such things as were worn by the Red-head. So it was
+settled, although it would be a number of weeks before the judge and
+Sile could set out for their eastern home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At several points in the East there are schools designed and maintained
+for the special education of Indian girls and boys, only needing greater
+help from men and women who have money intrusted to them by the Giver.
+
+Among all the tribes of the West, and in every band, Na-tee-kah and Two
+Arrows wait to be found and enticed into a training that is for their
+everlasting good and for that of their race.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+    +-------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                             |
+    |                                                 |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:     |
+    |                                                 |
+    | Page   6  pursuasive changed to persuasive      |
+    | Page  12  acquainttance changed to acquaintance |
+    | Page  73  pappose changed to pappoose           |
+    | Page  83  if changed to it                      |
+    | Page 109  wherebouts changed to whereabouts     |
+    | Page 117  familar changed to familiar           |
+    | Page 121  necesary chaged to necessary          |
+    | Page 129  vension changed to venison            |
+    | Page 164  vension changed to venison            |
+    | Page 203  he changed to be                      |
+    |Page 220  condemmed changed to condemned         |
+    +-------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Arrows, by William O. Stoddard
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