earned that two
burglars had been shot while escaping from an American penitentiary.
One of them was undoubtedly Dick Pogue, and the other was described as
a big dark man with three fingers on the right hand.

XXVII

THE RIVAL TRIBE

The winning back of the farm, according to Sanger custom must be
celebrated in a "sociable" that took the particular form of a grand
house-warming, in which the Raftens, Burnses and Boyles were fully
represented, as Char-less was Caleb's fast friend. The Injun band
was very prominent, for Caleb saw that it was entirely owing to the
meetings at the camp that the glad event had come about.

Caleb acted as go-between for Char-less Boyle and William Raften,
and their feud was forgotten--for the time at least--as they related
stories of their early hunting days, to the delight of Yan and the
Tribe. There were four other boys there whom Little Beaver met for the
first time. They were Wesley Boyle, a dark-skinned, low-browed, active
boy of Sam's age; his brother Peter, about twelve, fair, fat and
freckled, and with a marvellous squint; and their cousin Char-less
Boyle, Jr., good-natured, giggly, and of spongy character; also Cyrus
Digby, a smart city boy, who was visiting "the folks," and who usually
appeared in white cuffs and very high stand-up collar. These boys were
greatly interested in the Sanger Indian camp, and one outcome of the
meeting at Caleb's was the formation of another Tribe of Indians,
composed of the three Boyle boys and their town friend.

Since most of these were Boyles and the hunting-ground was the Boyles
woods about that marshy pond, and especially because they had read of
a band of Indians named Boilers or Stoneboilers (Assineboines), they
called themselves the "Boilers." Wesley was the natural leader. He was
alert as well as strong, and eager to do things, so made a fine Chief.
His hooked nose and black hair and eyes won for him the appropriate
name of "Blackhawk." The city boy being a noisy "show-off," who did
little work, was called "Bluejay" Peter Boyle was "Peetweet," and
Char-less, from his peculiar snickering and showing two large front
teeth, was called "Red-squirrel."

They made their camp as much as possible like that of the Sangers, and
adopted their customs; but a deadly rivalry sprang up between them
from the first. The Sangers felt that they were old and experienced
Woodcrafters. The Boilers thought they knew as much and more, and they
outnumbe