n and
was moving rapidly south in force.

If it had not been for the courage and coolness of Spotted Eagle and
Lone Chief, the tribe would have been thrown into a state of more
hopeless desperation than before; but they summoned all the chiefs
together and gave them the command of strong parties which should post
themselves on the outskirts of the camp, in order to show the enemy that
they were fully prepared to do battle without waiting for the attack
upon the camp itself. Orders were also given that no fires were to be
lighted if the enemy did not appear before nightfall. Scouting parties
were then to be sent far out on the northern prairie so as to prevent
all possibility of a surprise attack.

The afternoon passed into evening. The short-lived northern twilight
darkened swiftly down the prairies, and it was night. And above, in the
enormous hollow of the sky, the stars glittered like many camp-fires,
and ever and again the flocks of travelling voices came honking out of
the north, and filled the silence with a wandering cry.

CHAPTER XXV

HOW DUSTY STAR DANCED WITH THE WOLVES

After Lone Chief had left him in order to carry his refusal back to the
tribe, Dusty Star was not happy in his mind. Wherever he went, whatever
he did, the vague unhappiness went with him. The forest was the same;
the creatures were the same, and yet, somehow nothing was quite as it
had been before. Even Carboona, that colossal Sameness, seemed to hold
something uneasy sitting in its heart. In vain he went and sat on his
favorite look-out places above the runways, and secretly observed the
coming and going of stealthy feet. Equally in vain was the long
conversation he had with Goshmeelee, who gave him her views about the
increasing difficulty of finding grubs in the cedar swamp, and the other
important matters.

And the growing unhappiness of the boy was shared by the wolf, who now
ceased to make long expeditions and did his hunting nearer camp.

When once Dusty Star had convinced himself that he had done wrong in
refusing to help his people, he did not waste any time in making up his
mind. He would go back. He would follow Lone Chief along the vast
distances that lay out there to the east. But he would not go alone.
Where he went, Kiopo should go too. They would carry the medicine
between them that should bring deliverance to his tribe. But first he
must say good-bye to his friends, whom he might not see for a very long
time,