78 WE PUNISH TOM BOOt. 



winter if I had not given him food. I at once went to see 

 A-ta-ka-koup, and asked him if he would go with me to try 

 and recover my property. Now A-ta-ka-koup had never for- 

 given Tom Boot for having thrown him against the logs of the 

 house, and this looked like a good chance of being even with 

 him. I made A-ta-ka-koup promise not to carry any weapon, 

 though I had a revolver hidden away myself, and finding from 

 some Indians, who were camped by my house, that Tom Boot 

 was encamped about twenty miles due south of us, we started 

 one morning, and reached the small prairie on which his lodge 

 stood before evening. A-ta-ka-koup went ahead to recon- 

 noitre, and remained in hiding till he saw Tom Boot go into 

 his lodge, when he returned to me. Our plan was as follows : 

 we were to creep up to the lodge after the fire was out, and 

 we might suppose that Tom was in bed, when we were to 

 enter quietly A-ta-ka-koup jumping on his shoulders and I 

 on his legs, and then we were to tie him, if possible, and 

 recover my property. 



We remained on the edge of the prairie for two hours after 

 sundown, and until I thought I should be frozen, when we 

 crept up to the lodge and peeped in. Everything was quiet, 

 and we could hear Tom's heavy breathing ; so we went in. 

 A-ta-ka-koup sprang on one end of Tom and I on the other, 

 and then began an awful struggle. I know I was thrown 

 about like a ball, and got some terrible blows, but fortunately 

 from bare feet. 



After what seemed an hour, and might have been only five 

 minutes, of this, we managed to tie him with buckskin thongs, 

 and were able to get up. In the meantime his wife, who had 

 at first taken us for hostile Indians killing her husband and 



