to the tent of the Medicine Man, and deposited it
at the door and rode off towards home.

The mother of Pretty Feather did not know whether to take the offering
or not, but Pretty Feather, seeing by this offering that her most
cherished wish was to be granted, told her mother to take the meat and
cook it and invite the old women of the camp to a feast in honor of the
son-in-law who was soon to keep them furnished with plenty of meat. Hake
and his friend sought out all of the old warriors and gained all the
information they desired. Every evening Hake visited his intended wife
and many happy evenings they spent together.

The morning of the tenth day the two friends left the village and
turned their faces toward the west where the camps of the enemy are
more numerous than in any other direction. They were not mounted and
therefore traveled slowly, so it took about ten days of walking before
they saw any signs of the enemy. The old warriors had told them of a
thickly wooded creek within the enemies' bounds. The old men said, "That
creek looks the ideal place to camp, but don't camp there by any means,
because there is a ghost who haunts that creek, and any one who camps
there is disturbed all through the night, and besides they never return,
because the ghost is Wakan (holy), and the enemies conquer the travelers
every time." The friends had extra moccasins with them and one extra
blanket, as it was late in the fall and the nights were very cold.

They broke camp early one morning and walked all day. Along towards
evening, the clouds which had been threatening all day, hurriedly opened
their doors and down came the snowflakes thick and fast. Just before it
started snowing the friends had noticed a dark line about two miles in
advance of them. Chaske spoke to his friend and said: "If this storm
continues we will be obliged to stay overnight at Ghost Creek, as
I noticed it not far ahead of us, just before the storm set in." "I
noticed it also," said Hake. "We might as well entertain a ghost all
night as to lie out on these open prairies and freeze to death." So they
decided to run the risk and stay in the sheltering woods of Ghost Creek.
When they got to the creek it seemed as if they had stepped inside a big
tepee, so thick was the brush and timber that the wind could not be felt
at all. They hunted and found a place where the brush was very thick and
the grass very tall. They quickly pulled the tops of the nearest willo