the hour he bounded
upon his pony and entered so eagerly on the raid had been a continual
disappointment. He was angered and resentful toward the supposed dead
Red Feather, because he allowed himself to be baffled at the beginning
by a solitary boy.

Tall Bear's pride was stirred, and he was unwilling to confess himself
beaten after openly blaming his predecessor for failing to capture the
place with less than one-third of his force.

But there seemed to be no help for it, unless he should persevere with
the fire until the logs of the house were forced into combustion. They
must yield in time, if the effort was kept up; and he was on the point
of renewing the attempt on a larger scale than before when his attention
was drawn to the sentinel on the hill, who uttered the startling cry
that horsemen were in sight to the northward.

[Illustration: "More Sioux comin'--open door quick."--Page 90]

The chief and the warriors who were not already on the spot hurried
thither to learn what it meant.

As I have explained elsewhere, this discovery did not take place until
near nightfall, when darkness was beginning to render surrounding
objects indistinct. The long delay in the arrival of help for the
children of the pioneer led Tall Bear to believe it was not likely to
come before morning; but once more it looked as if Providence was about
to interfere to bring his wicked schemes to naught.

The gloom overspreading stream and prairie prevented the Sioux from
seeing the horsemen clearly enough to identify them. The forms were so
shadowy and vague that nothing more could be learned than that there
were about a dozen men mounted on horses, and riding toward the cabin on
a slow walk, as if not without some misgiving.

It was certain that while the sentinel on the hill commanded an
unusually wide sweep of vision, he himself was conspicuous, and the
others had been as quick to discover him as he was to detect them. Both
parties, therefore, were aware of the presence of the other, and neither
was likely to make a mistake at this critical juncture.

But neither Tall Bear nor any of his warriors could tell of a surety
whether the approaching horsemen were white or red men. The Sioux
grouped around the house were not the only ones by any means that were
engaged on this memorable raid in Southern Minnesota, and it was not
impossible that a party of friends were in sight.

It was somewhat curious that the majority of the Sioux beli