Dec. 2, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
447 
lat we might not be able to shoot any' game or build a 
re. 
That was a long day. By turns we slept a little, that 
Wolverine slept. I’m sure I scarcely dozed, for I was 
Iways expecting the war party to jump us. Yes, I was 
retty young at the business then, and so was the Indian. 
Vhat we ought to have done, after getting water, was 
D have ridden to the top of some butte and remained 
here during the day. From such a point we could have 
een the opprcach of an enemy a long way off, and our 
wift horses could have easily taken us beyond their 
each. It was mere luck that we were not seen to enter 
he valley and the cottonwood grove, for there a war 
larty could have surrounded us and rendered our es- 
;ape difficult, if not impossible. 
Up to this time Wolverine had made no definite plan 
o get the girl away. Sometimes he would say that he 
vould steal into the camp and to her lodge at night, but 
hat was certainly risky, for if he did succeed in getting 
0 the lodge without being taken for an enemy come to 
;teal horses he might awaken the wrong woman and 
hen there would be a terrible outcry. On the other 
rand, if he boldly went into the camp on a friendly visit, 
ro doubt old Bull’s Head, the girl’s father, would suspect 
lis purpose and closely watch her. But this discovery of 
1 war party moving down the river toward the Gros 
Fentre camp gave him a plain opening. 
“I knew that my medicine would not desert me,” he 
aSd suddenly that afternoon, laughing happily ; “and see, 
ihe way is clear before us. We will ride boldly into 
camp, to the lodge of the great chief Three Bears. I 
tvill say that our chief sent me to warn him of a war 
party working this way. I will say that we ourselves 
have seen their tracks along the bars of the river. Then 
the Gros Ventres will guard their horses; they will am- 
bush the enemy ; there will be a big fight, big excitement. 
All the men will rush to the fight, and that will be my 
time. I will call Piks-ah'-ki, we will mount our horses 
and fly.” 
Again we rode hard all night, and at daylight came in 
.sight of the wide dark gash in the great plain which 
marked the course of the Missouri. W^e had crossed the 
Judith the evening before, and were now on a broad trail 
worn in deep furrows by the travois and lodge poles of 
;inany a camp of Piegans and Gros Ventres, traveling 
libetween the great river and the mountains to the south. 
'The sun was not high when we at last came to the pine- 
(clad rim of the valley and looked down into the wide, 
tjong bottom at the mouth of the Judith; there, whitely 
gleaming against the dark foliage of a cottonwood grove, 
were the lodges of the Gros Ventres, some 300 and more. 
Hundreds and hundreds of horses were feeding on the 
sage brush flat; riders were galloping here and there, 
driving their several bands to water, or catching up fresh 
animals for the daily hunt. Although still a couple of 
miles away we could hear the confused noise of the 
camp, shouts, childish laughter, singing, the beating of 
drums. 
“Ah!” Wolverine exclaimed. “There is the camp. 
Now for the big lie.” Then, more seriously, “Pity me, 
great sun! pity me, you under-water creature of my 
dream ! Help me to obtain that which I seek here.” 
Oh, yes, the youth was in love. Cupid plays havoc 
with the hearts of red as well as white people. ^ And— 
dare I say it? — the love of the red, as a rule, is more 
lasting, more faithful than the love of the superior race. 
We rode into the camp stared at by all as we passed 
along. The chief’s lodge was pointed out to us. We 
dismounted at the doorway, a youth took charge of our 
horses and we entered. There were three or four guests 
present enjoying an early feast and smoke. The chief 
■.motioned us to the seat of honor on his own couch at the 
back of the lodge. He was a heavy, corpulent man, a 
'typical Gros Ventre, Big Belly. 
The pipe was being passed and we smoked a few 
whiffs from it in our turn. A guest was telling a story, 
when he finished it the chief turned to us, and asked, in 
good Blackfoot, whence we had come. Nearly all the 
older Gos Ventres at that time spoke Blackfoot fluently, 
but the Blackfoot never could speak Gros Ventre; it was 
too difficult for anyone not born and reared with them 
to learn. 
“We come,” Wolverine replied, “from up the yellow 
(Judith) river, above the mouth of the Warm Spring. 
My chief, the Big Lake, gives you this— producing and 
handing him a long coil of rope tobacco — and asks you 
to smoke with him in friendship.” 
“Ah!” said Three Bears, smiling, and laying the to- 
bacco at one side. “Big Lake is my good friend. We 
wdll smoke with him.” 
“My chief also sends word with me that you are to 
keep close watch of your horses, for some of our hunters 
have found signs of a war party traveling this way. We 
ourselves, this white man here, who is my friend, and I, 
we also have come across their trail. We saw it yester- 
day morning up the river. There are twenty, maybe 
thirty of them, and they are on foot. Perhaps to-night, 
surely by to-morrow night, they will raid your herd.” 
The old chief asked many questions as to what tribe 
the war party might be, just where we had seen their 
tracks, and SO' on, which Wolverine answered as best Ire 
could. Then some boiled meat, some dried buffalo back 
fat and some pemmican were set before us, and we had 
our breakfast. While we were eating the chief con- 
ferred with his other guests, and they soon went away, 
as I presumed, to tell the news and prepare to surprise 
the expected raiders. Three Bears informed us that his 
lodge was ours ; that our horses would be cared for ; our 
saddles and bridles were brought in and piled near the 
doorway. I forgot to mention that Wolverine had 
cached his precious bundle away back on the trail soon 
after daylight. 
After our breakfast and another smoke, during which 
the chief asked all manner of questions about the Pie- 
gans, Wolverine and I strolled through the carnp and 
down to the banks of the river. On the way he pointed 
out the lodge of his prospective father-in-law. Old 
Bull’s Head was a medicine man, and the outside of his 
abode was painted with the symbols of his particular 
dream-given power, twO' huge grizzly bears in black, 
below which were circles of moons in red. We sa.t by 
the river a while, watching a lot of boys and young men 
swim; I noticed, however, that my companion kept an 
eye on the women continually coming for water. Evi- 
dently the particular one he longed to see did not appear, 
and we turned back toward the chief’s lodge, after a 
time. A couple of women were killing a fat pup of three 
or four months just back of it by strangulation. 
“Why are they killing that dog?” I asked. 
“Ugh,” Wolverine replied, making a wry face, “it is 
for a feast for us.” 
“A feast for us!” I repeated in astonishment. “Do 
you mean that they will cook the dog, will expect us to 
eat it ?” 
“Yes, these Gros Ventres eat dog; they think it better 
than buffalo meat, or other meat of any kind. Yes, they 
will stew it and set it before us, great bowls of^Tt, and 
we must eat of it or they will be displeased.” 
“I will not touch it,” I cried. “No, I will never touch 
it.” 
“But you will, you must, else you wish to make ene- 
mies of our friends; and” — despondently — “perhaps spoil 
my chance of getting that which I have come for.” 
Well, in due time the meat of the dog was set before 
us; very white it looked, and certainly the odor of it 
was far from disagreeable. But — it was dog. Never in 
all my life had I dreaded to do anything more than to- 
taste of it, yet I felt that I must. I grasped a, rib, set 
my muscles determinedly, and bolted the meat upon it, 
blinking and swallowing and swallowing to keep it down. 
And it stayed down ; I made it stay, although for a mo- 
ment it was a toss-up which would win — the nausea or 
my will. In this manner I managed to eat a small part 
of that set before me, partaking liberally of some berry 
pemmican, which was a sort of side dish. I was glad • 
when the meal was over. Oh, yes, I was' very glad ; and 
it was many an hour after before my stomach became 
normal. 
It was thought that the expected enemy would pos- 
sibly arrive that night; so as soon as it was dark nearly 
all the men of the camp picked up their weapons and 
crept out through the sage brush to the foot of the hills, 
stringing out far above and below and back of their 
feeding herds. Wolverine and I had our horses up and 
saddled, he telling the chief that in case a fight began 
we would ride out and join his men. My comrade went 
out early in the evening, I sat up for an hour or more, 
and as he did not return, I lay down on the couch, cov- 
ered myself with a blanket and was soon sound asleep, 
not waking until morning. Wolverine was just getting 
up. After breakfast we went out and walked around 
and he told me that he had found a chance to^ whisper 
to Piks-ah’-ki the night before, when she had come out- 
side for wood, and that she had agreed to go with him 
whenever the time came. He was in great spirits, and 
as we strolled along the shore of the river could not 
help breaking out in the war songs which the Blackfeet 
always sing when they are happy. 
Along near noon, after we had returned to the lodge, 
among other visitors at tall, heavy, evil-featured man 
came in; by the nudge Wolverine gave me as he sat 
down opposite and scowled at us I knew that he was 
Bull’s Head. He had a heavy growth of hair which he 
wore coiled on his head like a pyramid. He talked for 
some time with Three Bears and the other guests, and 
then, to my surprise, began to address them in Black- 
foot, talking at us, and there was real and undisguised 
hatred in his tone. 
“This story of an approaching war party,” he said, 
“is all a lie. Look at it; the Big Lake sends word that 
his people have seen their trail ; now, I know that the 
Piegans are cowards; still, where there are so many of 
them they woulud be sure to follow such a trail and at- 
tack the enemy. No, they never saw any such trail, 
never sent any such word; but I believe an enemy has 
come, and is in our camp now not after our herds but 
our women. Last night I was a fool. I went out and 
watched for horse-stealers; I watched all night, but none 
came. To-night I shall stay in my lodge and watch for 
womcn-stealers, and my gun will be loaded. I advise 
you all to do the same.” 
And having had his say he got up and flounced out of 
the lodge, muttering to himself, undoubtedly cursing all 
the Piegans, and one in particular. Old Three Bears 
watched him depart with a grim smile, and said to Wol- 
verine : 
“Do not remember his words ; he is old, and cannot 
forget that your people killed his son and his brother. 
Others of us” — with a deep sigh — “others of us also- lost 
brothers and sons in the war with your people, yet, we 
made the great peace. What is past is past; the dead 
cannot be brought to life, but the living will live longer 
and be happier now that we have ceased to fight and 
rob one another.” 
“You speak the truth,” said Wolverine. “Peace be- 
tween we two people is good. I forget the old man’s 
words. Do you also forget them and guard your horses, 
for this night surely the enemy will come.” 
Again at dusk we saddled our horses and picketed 
them close to the lodge. Wolverine putting his saddle 
on the pinto pony and shortening the stirrups. He in- 
tended to ride his own animal bareback. He told me 
that Piks-ah'-ki had been under guard of her father’s 
Gros Ventre wives all day. The old man not trusting 
her Pigan mother to accompany her after wood and 
water for the lodge. I again went to sleep early, my 
companion going out as usual. But this time I did not 
rest until morning, for I was awakened by the firing of 
guns out on the flat, and a great commotion in camp, 
men shouting and running toward the scene of the fight, 
women calling and talking excitedly, children crying and 
shrieking. I hurried out to where our horses were 
picketed, carrying my own rifle and Wolverine’s. He 
owned a fine Hawkins, 32 balls to the pound, which 
Sorrel Horse had given -him. I learned afterward that 
old Bull’s Head was one of the first to rush to the rescue 
of his horses when the firing began. As soon as he had 
left the lodge Wolverine, who was lying nearby in the 
sage brush, ran to it and called his sweetheart’s name. 
Out she came, followed by her mother, carrying several 
little bags. A minute later they came to where I stood, 
both women crying. Wolverine and I unfastened the 
horses. 
“Hurry,” he cried, “hurry.” 
He gently took the girl from where she was crying 
in the ernffirace of he| mother and lifte4 -her into the 
saddle, handing her the bridle reins. 
“Listen,” cried the mother, “you will >% good to her. 
I call the sun to treat you as you do> her.” 
“I love her, and I will be good to her,” Wolverine 
answered, and then to us: “Follow me, hurry.” 
Away we went over the flat, straight for the trail upon 
which we had entered the valley, and straight toward 
the fight raging at the foot of the hill. We could hear 
the shots and shouts, see the flash of the guns. This 
was more than I had bargained for; again I was sorry 
I had started out on this girl-stealing trip; I didn’t want 
to charge in where , the bullets of a fight that didn’t in- 
terest me were flying. But Wolverine was leading, his 
sweetheart riding close behind him, and there was noth- 
ing for me to do but follow them. As we neared the 
scene my comrade began to shout: 
“Where is the enemy ? Let us kill all of them. Where 
are they? Where do they hide?” 
I saw his point. He didn’t intend that the Gros Ven- 
tres should mistake us for some of the raiders. But the 
latter, suppose we ran on to any of them? 
The firing had ceased and the shouting; all was quiet 
ahead of us, but we knew that there in the moonlit sage 
brush both parties were lying, the one trying to sneak 
away, the other trying, without too much risk, to get, 
sight of them. We had but a hundred yards or more 
now between us and the foot of the hill, and I was- 
thinking that we were past the danger points when, with 
a sputter of fire from the pan and a burst of flame from 
the muzzle, a flint-lock gun was discharged right in front 
of Wolverine, and down went his horse and he with it. 
Our own animals, suddenly stopped. The girl shrieked 
and cried out: 
“They have killed him ! Help, white man, they have 
killed him!” 
But before we could dismount we saw Wolverine ex- 
tricate himself from the fallen animal, spring to his feet 
and shoot at something concealed from us by the sage 
brush. We heard a deep groan, a rustling of the brush 
and then Wolverine bounded to the place and struck 
something three or four hard blows with the barrel of 
his rifle.. Stooping over he picked up the gun which had 
been fired at him. 
“I count a coup,” he laughed, and running over to me 
and fastening the old fuke in the gun sling on the horn 
of my saddle, “carry it a ways until we get out of the 
valley.” 
I was about to tell him that I thought he was foolish 
to delay us for an old fuke, when right beside of us, old 
Bull’s Head appeared, seeming to have sprung all at 
once out of the brush, and with a torrent of angry 
