ike midnight by now, retorts that he
will. So he gets his pipe an' fills it with medicine tobacco an' blows
a mouthful of smoke in the red-eyed pony's nose. Sech remedies don't
work; that pony still limps on three laigs, draggin' the afflicted
member mighty pensive.

"At last the Lance gives Black Cloud a patronisin' smile an' says that
his medicine'll cure the pony sound an' well while you're crackin' off
a gun. He walks up to the pony an' looks long in its red eyes; the
pony's y'ears an' tail droops, its head hangs down, an' it goes mighty
near to sleep. Then the Lance rubs his hand two or three times up an'
down the lame laig above the fetlock an' elim'nates that hossha'r
ligature an' no one the wiser. A moment after, he wakes up the
red-eyed pony an' to the amazement of the Osages an' the onbounded
delight of the Creeks, the pony is no longer lame, an' the laig so late
afflicted is as solid an' healthy as a sod house. What's bigger
medicine still, the red-eyed pony begins to follow the Lance about like
a dog an' as if it's charmed; an' it likewise turns in to bite an' r'ar
an' pitch an' jump sideways if Black Cloud seeks to put his paw on him.
Then all the Injuns yell with one voice: 'The Lance has won the Black
Cloud's big medicine red-eyed pony away from him.'

"The Lance is shore the fashion, an' Black Cloud discovers he ain't a
four-spot by compar'son. His repootation is gone, an' the Lance is
regyarded as the great medicine along the Arkansaw.

"Sunbright is lookin' on at these manoovers an' her heart goes out to
the Lance; she falls more deeply in love with him than even the
red-eyed bronco does. That evenin' as the Lance is goin' to his camp
onder the cottonwoods, he meets up with Sunbright standin' still as a
tree in his path with her head bowed like a flower that's gone to
sleep. The Lance saveys; he knows Sunbright; likewise he knows what
her plantin' herse'f in his way an' her droopin' attitoode explains.
He looks at her, an' says;

"'I am a guest of the Osages, an' to-night is not the night. Wait
ontil the Lance is in his own teepee on the Polecat; then come.'

"Sunbright never moves, never looks up; but she hears an' she knows
this is right. No buck should steal a squaw while he's a guest. The
Lance walks on an' leaves her standin', head bowed an' motionless.

"Two days later the Lance is ag'in in his own teepee. Sunbright counts
the time an' knows that he must be thar. She skulks fr