Sept. 6, igo2.1 
began to drop some fat cows, when a much larger bunch 
close in behind us, pursued by other hunters, and there 
we were surrounded by a vast number of the frenzied 
animals. It was a dangerous situation; a fall then meant 
instant death, and then, so great was the press that one 
ran the risk of having his horse gored at everj^ jump. 
Of course the frightened animals did their best to 
crowd away from us, and at times there would be an 
open space of a few yards about us, and then the jain 
would be so great that I could reach out and touch a 
buffalo on either side of me. Yes, I was surely pretty 
badly frightened, and feared my time had come. I got out 
of the crush first, and then Lone Bull. But Heavy Gim, 
just as he was nearing the edge of the herd, was charged 
by a wounded bull. The huge beast stuck its head under 
the horse and tossed it and its rider clear of¥ to one side. 
Heavy Gun struck the frozen ground with a dull thud 
and lay motionless. His horse staggered to its feet 
just behind him and stood still, its intestines pouring out 
on to the plain from the gaping rent in its side, and that 
was all that .saved the poor fellow from being trampled 
into an unrecognizable mass; the onrushing buffalo kept 
parting to the right and left when they came to the 
horse. In a moment or two the last of the herd swept 
by, and we hurried to the fallen man's assistance; he still 
breathed, but was unconscious. Some women soon came 
along with their travois, and lashing him on one of these 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
hunt, visited his friends and gave them an occasional 
feast. The new wife also ceased mourning, outwardly, 
at least, doing her best to tan her share of the robes 
and furs, and perform the necessary household duties. 
Pe-tah-ky, however, could not become reconciled to the 
new order of things. In times gone by she had been very 
intimate with Sai-pi, but now she treated her as one 
beneath her notice, and repelled her little conciliatory 
advances with haughty scorn. 
One afternoon I was dozing on my courch and heard 
Pe-tah-ky begin to scold the new wife bitterly for some 
fancied fault in her work; for the first time the other 
answered back, and a fine war of words ensued. "I'll 
give you to understand," cried Pe-tah-ky, "that I am the 
chief; you have got to do just as I say about the work." 
"Here, here!" said Lone Bull, unexpectedly entering 
the lodge, grasping each woman by the hair and gently 
tunking their heads together, "There is no chief in this 
lodge but me. Stop quarreling now and behave your- 
selves." 
When he let go of them they both began to explain 
in a torrent of words that the other was to blame. He 
stopped them with a wave of the hand. "No more of 
this," he said. 'T love you both and treat you well, but 
if you persist in quarreling I shall have to punish you. 
Kiss and be friends." 
Sai-pi advanced willingly enough, but the other — you 
isB 
TILE OLD NEW YORK TOMB.S, BUILT ON THE SITE OF THE COLLECT FOND. 
Photograph from the Forest and Stream office in 1897. 
3ve got him back lo camp and into his lodge as soon as 
j30ssib]e. Toward evening he revived a little, but he was 
mortally injured inside and the stamp of death was on 
his face. VVc could see that there was no hope for him. 
Shortly before died he called Lone Bull to his side: 
"Friend," he said, "I am going. Before morning my 
shadow will join those of our fathers in the Sand Hills. 
I give you my horses, my lodge, everything that is mine. 
And also I give you my wife to be your wife. Be good 
to her; even as vou love and care for Pe-tah-ky, so care 
for her." 
Lone Bull hung his head and did not reply, and pres- 
ently Heavy Gun continued : "We have been boys, 
youths and men together. Always together we have 
fought the enemy, gone on the hunt, and have had our 
feasts and fun. And always, at any time, we would have 
died for each other. And now? What? Can you re- 
fuse yoirr tak-ka's last request?" 
"Say no more," Lone Bull replied. "I will take her 
and be kind to her." But his heart was heavy. He did 
not love her. What would Pe-tah-ky say? 
After Heavy Gun died our lodge was not so cheerful 
as it had been. There were no more feasts, no more 
tales and jokes told around the evening fire. Lone Bull 
-at silent day after day grieving over the loss of his 
friend. Pe-tah-ky worked outside from daylight until 
dark tanning buffalo robes with fierce and tireless energy, 
saying nothing bitt thinking a whole lot, I was sure. In 
the evenings, instead of embroidering fancy moccasins 
for her husband, as was her custom, she sat with folded 
hands gazing moodily at the fire. She cooked and 
waited on him as usual, of course, but not with the af- 
fectionate solicitude and cheerfulness of yore. As for 
Sai-pi, the widow, or rather, the new wife, she sat 
huddled up in her robe near the doorwaj' most of the 
lime, dejected and forlorn. New Shield, his mother and 
I did our best to liven things up a bit, but our efforts 
^were a dismal failure, and evenings the youth and the 
old woman would go visiting where they could find more 
lively and congenial company. But, of course, this state 
of affairs could not last forever. After a month or so 
Lone Bull began to recover his spirits; he joined in the 
should have seen her eyes flash as she hung back. "Kiss 
her," Lone Bull coiiimanded sternly, and with a gasp 
Pe-tah-ky. brushed the other's cheek as lightly as a 
breath of air. and rushed sobbing out of the lodge. 
"Hai, Hai!" Lone Bull exclaimed, throwing himself 
wearily down on his couch. "I have got myself into a 
fine fix. I fear there will be no more peace in this lodge 
for me. But what could I do? How could I help it? 
It was impossible to refuse my old friend's last re- 
quest." 
I had no suggestions to offer. I remained in the 
lodge nearly all the time in order to trade with the In- 
dians, and I knew the situation better than Lone Bull, 
for he was out hunting or looking after his horses the 
greater part of the time. I was sure that Pe-tah-ky 
would never become reconciled to sharing her husband's 
affections with another woman. I rather pitied her, 
too. She had been a most faithful and loving wife, and 
it was but natural for her to resent the new order of 
things. Also, I felt sorry for the other woman; she had 
had no choice but to obey Heavy Gun's dying request. 
Then, too, Lone Bull was deserving of sympathy; he had 
not taken the woman because he wanted her, but sim- 
ply to please his friend. 
In the latter part of February we moved south to the 
Marias River, where Fort Conrad now stands. The 
domestic affairs of our lodge had not improved. Sai-pi 
was quiet enough, but Pe-tah-ky was eternally scold- 
ing and nagging her, and ridiculing her skill as a worker. 
One day when nearly the whole camp was out after 
buffalo, I went to the brush bordering the river to gather 
some red willow or "kinni-kin-ik," as some people call 
it, to mix with the strong tobacco I was smoking. I 
had cut about all I wanted and was preparing to take it 
to the lodge, when I saw Pe-tah-ky and Sai-pi, each 
with a bucket, going for water. The ice was very thick 
on the river, but out in the center, at the head of some 
rapids, there was an open place about ten feet long and 
eighteen inches wide where ottr part of the camp got 
its necessary supply of water for household use. I tied 
up my bundle of sticks and had just got out on the path 
leading to the water hole when Pe-tah-ky came running 
up, crying that Sai-pi was drowned. "She was filling 
her bucket," she said excitedly, "when she slipped in 
and the current drew her under the ice before I could 
reach out to save her." 
We hurried down the path through the brush to the 
water hole. Sure enough no Sai-pi was to be seen, and 
bel ow the narrow open place where the water flowed 
sluggishly, the river was frozen solidly as far as I could 
see. But there were both water buckets and both were 
filled! I looked at Pe-tah-ky and saw that her sleeves 
were wet; and then I noticed a short, heavy club lying 
near. All was made plain to me: Pe-tah-ky had stunned 
her hated rival and shoved her under the ice. 
"Woman," I said sternly, looking her in the eyes, 
"you said she was filling her bucket when she slipped 
and was drawn under. There stands her bucket full of 
water; also, your sleeves are wet to the shoulder, and 
here is a club upon which I see a few hairs and some 
blood." 
"I didn't strike her," Pe-tah-ky broke in, "I-I-Oh, go 
away — leave me." 
I went back to the lodge with my willows and began 
to scrape them, and presently she came in. We did not 
speak, and she would not look at me. When Lone Bull 
returned she told him with many a hesitating stop and 
furtive glance at me, about the accident. I had made 
up my mind what to do and kept still. But I'll say this: 
No real woman wants to share her husband's affections 
with another one of her sex, be she savage or civihzed, 
and I've no doubt that this was not the only murder that 
has been committed to prevent it. 
Hunting Companions. 
There is no better opportunity for testing the fiber of 
a man than when on a hunting trip. While it is true 
that such an expedition is merely an exploration in quest 
of health or recreative amusement, and seemingly an un- 
important event in a biography, nevertheless, there is an 
mtensity of purpose and a natural competition among 
ardent sportsmen on these occasions, regulated by no 
laws of comity whatever, excepting those self-established 
or interested, which go to make up an individual code. 
Professional "courtesy," business "custoins," social 
"laws" and athletic "rules" may be appealed to for arbi- 
trating a difference of opinion in ever}'-day life; but in 
the woods a man is free and the height of his enjoyment 
proceeds from this realization, together with the exercise 
of his freedom from all the restraints and limitations 
ordinarily imposed by the checks and balances, weights 
and measures of a delicately poised community; therefore, 
the camp-fire becomes a veritable X-ray which pene- 
trates the outer covering— the veneer— illuminates the 
"inwards" and reveals any incongruities in the general 
make-up of the individual. 
Preparations for the hunters' outing involves the search 
for a likely bit of territory, and with the decision as to 
which little out-of-the-way corner of the globe shall be 
visited, the matter of personal responsibility first appears 
above the horizon, and thenceforth, if allowed, will ex- 
pand with each successive step of progress tiU burden- 
some proportions are assumed. 
As regards this question of responsibihty, it may be 
said to be scarcely probable that any two men have the 
same opinion of the same section of country; consequent- 
ly, we may take it for granted that one of them per- 
suaded the other to visit a particular hunting ground, and,- 
smce their interests are identical, he did so, of course, 
from the best of motives. Now, hunting is a game of 
chance— indeed, all the thrills and interest desert a sport 
when success is not in doubt— and while the coveted 
quadrupeds may have been very numerous in a certain 
territory during one hunting season, and thus earned for 
It a good reputation, they may be on a far distant tract 
the next. For instance, the writer visited a remote lo- 
cality last autumn, where, during the previous season, a 
professional trapper had repeatedly met moose and cari- 
bou face to face on the woodland trails, and still, al- 
though the carcases of the slain (too many, we are sorry 
to say) supplied indisputable evidence of the truth of his 
assertion, the hardest kind of hunting was necessary in 
order to acquire the lawful quota of caribou, and not a 
moose was seen. So, a disappointment may be thfe 
first test of a comrade's disposition; and have you ever 
had the misfortune to have advocated a particular place 
for hunting, and thus assumed a certain amount of re- 
sponsibility, to a man who was absolutelv minus the re- 
sources which \AouId enable him to find some kind of 
compensation in a hunting journey, notwithstanding a 
m.ischance?— a morbid individual who brooded over his 
troubles (?) morning, noon and night, shutting his eyes 
to the surrounding diversified beauty and interests, "his 
ears to the soothing cadences or awe-compelling stillness 
of the forest, accepting no alternative than blood? Such 
as he, we need not add, are undisciplined and not true 
sportsmen ; they are of the type of those so-called hunters 
who sit in camp until a guide "hoofs" an animal and then 
go forth to do the killing ; but you cannot detect them at 
home. Think of the mental discomfort such a person 
causes an imputative responsible companion, and of the 
irritating influence of the oft-repeated query, "Who pro- 
posed this?" and you will comprehend that suggestive- 
ness is undesirable and also that the relationship'bctween 
erstwhile friends can become severely strained while away 
off in the woods, out of the reach of a referee. 
Then again the plain, unvarnished, vulgar word money, 
may develop a discordant note in a member of a hunting 
party, although surely sordidness is conspicuously out 
of place in the m:dst of nature's lavishness. Estimates 
of the attending expenses may have been exceeded, and 
since "wherewithal" is the lubricant necessarv to the 
mechanical department of a himting iourney, the sub- 
ject must,_ unfortunately, now and then recur. Efforts 
to economize and retrench are, of course, entirely legiti- 
mate : but to mope because the other member' of the 
expedition declines to deprive himself of anv part of the 
pleasure of the outing, in order to abide bv a guess as to 
the cost, IS as unfair and as destructive of all mutual en- 
joyment as is the twitting of the projector of the trip with 
his error in financial judgment. The better able the man 
to bear his share of expenses, the more reprehensible is 
any display of littleness. To have every contract d,xi4 
