white war-party. Splendidly painted and with feather hanging from
his tail, he galloped out toward the fort. His brothers, seeing
this rashness, closed in with him, but no sign of life came from the
stronghold.

Boldly he rode up to the edge of the bales of goods, and glancing over
saw the swelled and blackened bodies of the three beaver men and knew
by the skinned lips and staring eyes that thirst had done its work. The
braves gathered, but no man dismounted and one by one they turned and
rode away. "The bad spirits of the dead may get into our bodies--come
away--come away--the sun shines now, but we must be far away when the
night sets in. Our medicine-arrows will keep them off after that," said
the Fire Eater.

Much cast down the Red Lodge warriors gathered up their dead and rode
slowly back toward the village.

On the morning of the second day the Cheyennes awoke to find the Fire
Eater gone, but he had left his horses on their hands. "The young
chief's heart is bad. He has gone away by himself. He will not want us
to follow him. He cannot go into the village with our dead and wear the
mourning paint," whispered they, one to another.

This was true--for the fierce spirit of the young man could not brook
defeat. The Chis-chis-chash should never see blackened ashes on a cheek
which was only fitted for the red paint. The shield of the Fire Eater
should never face to the lance--the little brown bat flapped fiercely in
the wind and screamed for blood and scalp braids. The warrior traveled
lazily on his journey--light-hearted and fiercely resolved.

After many days of wolfish travel he saw signs of the vicinage of
the Shoshone Indians. They were a hungry band who had come out of the
mountains and were hunting the buffalo. He followed the pony tracks
where they were not lost in the buffalo's trails, finding picked bones,
bits of castaway clothing and other signs until he saw the scouts of the
enemy riding about the hills. Approaching carefully in the early night
and morning he found the camp and lay watching for depressions in the
fall of some bluffs. But the young men were ceaselessly active, and he
did not see an opportunity to approach. During the night he withdrew to
a pine-clad rocky fortress which promised better concealment, and his
surprise was great in the morning to see the Sho-shones preparing to
make a buffalo-surround in the valley immediately in front of him. From
all directions they came and encompassed