The Way of an Indian

nds, where they proceeded to cut them into two bunches-fifteen horses for each young man. This was not a bad beginning in life, where poni

y after the Bat's nineteen horses, for the twentieth, which w

ar bloodied his whole face, and a rope and a whip-symbols of his success with horses-dangled in his right hand, while behind him followed the smart war-pony, covered with vermilion hand-prints as thickly as the spots on a brook-trout. The squaws ran from their fleshing, their chopping or their other work to look at the warrior who made all the camp talk. Wisdom mellowed by age, in the forms of certain

epee, waving his arms, giving his war-yell until he split the air and made his listeners' ears ring. The medicine Bat

' yehe's

' yehe'

' nihu'-H

' nihu'-H

e fire-lit circle, "Hi ya-hi y a-hi

rcoal, and he fasted many days before undergoing his initiation. The sacred symbols of the body, their

rning the tribe to be about its mission. The loads of dry meat made the horses weary, when the

o put out the white man's fires. The Bat's people were an arrogant band, and held their heads high in the presence of aliens. Their hands were laid heavily and at once on anyone who stood in their path. All the plains tribes, the French Indians at the posts and the Yellow-Eyed trapper-bands stood in awe of

apons, and "made whisky." The squaws concealed the arms while the warriors raged, but the Chis-chis-chash

. The thick walls seemed to his vagabond mind to be built to shield cowards. The white men were created only to bring goods to the Indians. They were weak, but their medicine was wonderful. It could make the knives and guns, which God had denied to the Bat's people. They were to be tolerated; they were few in num

mforters of the French-Creole workmen, and were dressed in bright calicos and red strouding, plentifully adorned with bright beads. The boy was beginning to feel a subtle weakening in their presence. His fierce barbarism

is lip curling upward with fine contempt. The "dogs" were hewing with axes about some newly made carts, or ru

the room, and when his eye became accustomed to the light, saw a young squaw, who sat beading, and wore a dress superior to that of the oth

ming)," spoke the statued brav

-chash tongue: "Whose squaw are you?"-which was followed

ence. Going to the door, she looked into the sunlighted court,

" He un

, and then ran her hand across her own throat as though s

s were not repulsed except that the fear of her liege lord out by the carts made her flutter to escape that she might reassure herself. She was once again covered by the sweep of the warrior's robe, and what they

o one of his people had seen the melee from which he had emerged so ingloriously, yet humiliation was terrible. Nothing like this had occurred before. Cowardly French half-breeds

he did not even speak, but walked away hearing

where he dismounted and sat down. The day passed, the ni

and lighted his pipe. Standing up, he blew a mouthful of smoke to each of the four corners of the world; then lowered his head in silence for a long wh

r the battlements of Fort Laramie. He wanted a river of blood-he wanted to break the bones of the

n old chief came out of the gate, turned the corner, saw the Bat, and said: "The white chief says you tried

and he made no reply, but stood leaning a

man, and not unexpectedly he heard a voice from above in the strange language which he did not understand. Looking up, he

a timber that had been exposed in the roof, dirt having been washed away. Many times she looked back anxiously,

ttle brother with his bunch of ponies. Taking the cherished war-pony and two others, he mounted his new woman on one, while he led the other beside his own. They galloped to the hills. Looking back over the intervening miles of plain, their sharp eyes could see people running

cape made it impossible now, as he feared pursuit. On the mountain-ridge they stopped, watching for

e boy and Minataree girl-for she proved to be of that tribe-and they w

ng after. The Bat lacked the inclination to stop long enough to murder Papin; h

amie was forgotten when they saw his willing captive. The fierce old women swarmed around, yelling at Seet-se-be-a in n

very morning Seet-se-be-a set a lance and shield up beside the door,