x have
dispatched a runner to get reinforcements! There he goes, down on the
flat! Now he has almost reached the river bottom!"

It was only Nakpa. She laid back her cars and stretched out more and
more to gain the river, for she realized that when she had crossed the
ford the Crows would not pursue her farther.

Now she had reached the bank. With the intense heat from her exertions,
she was extremely nervous, and she imagined a warrior behind every bush.
Yet she had enough sense left to realize that she must not satisfy her
thirst. She tried the bottom with her fore-foot, then waded carefully
into the deep stream.

She kept her big ears well to the front as she swam to catch the
slightest sound. As she stepped on the opposite shore, she shook herself
and the boys vigorously, then pulled a few mouthfuls of grass and
started on.

Soon one of the babies began to cry, and the other was not long in
joining him. Nakpa did not know what to do. She gave a gentle whinny and
both babies apparently stopped to listen; then she took up an easy gait
as if to put them to sleep.

These tactics answered only for a time. As she fairly flew over the
lowlands, the babies' hunger increased and they screamed so loud that a
passing coyote had to sit upon his haunches and wonder what in the world
the fleeing longeared horse was carrying on his saddle. Even magpies and
crows flew near as if to ascertain the meaning of this curious sound.

Nakpa now came to the Little Trail Creek, a tributary of the Powder, not
far from the old camp. No need of wasting any time here, she thought.
Then she swerved aside so suddenly as almost to jerk her babies out
of their cradles. Two gray wolves, one on each side, approached her,
growling low--their white teeth showing.

Never in her humble life had Nakpa been in more desperate straits. The
larger of the wolves came fiercely forward to engage her attention,
while his mate was to attack her behind and cut her hamstrings. But for
once the pair had made a miscalculation. The mule used her front hoofs
vigorously on the foremost wolf, while her hind ones were doing even
more effective work. The larger wolf soon went limping away with a
broken hip, and the one in the rear received a deep cut on the jaw which
proved an effectual discouragement.

A little further on, an Indian hunter drew near on horseback, but Nakpa
did not pause or slacken her pace. On she fled through the long dry
grass of the river botto