directed their hunt on a line nearly parallel, at no great distance,
from that which the train must follow. He was therefore doubly
astonished when a brief ride brought them within sight of the
wagon-tilts. They had halted, and Sile had double comfort: he could
show his father his first deer and he could get a hot dinner, for
Ha-ha-pah-no could do very well with a steak if not with coffee.

"Which of you killed the deer?" asked the judge, as they rode in.

Sile was silent long enough for Two Arrows to point at him and remark,

"Heap shoot."

"So I did, father, but he pointed him out. I'd never have seen him if
I'd been alone."

"Jest so," said Yellow Pine. "There isn't anything else on the earth
like the eyesight of an Indian. I've had 'em sight game more'n once that
I'd ha' missed sure."

It puzzled Na-tee-kah somewhat that anybody else should have won
anything while her wonderful brother was near by, but Ha-ha-pah-no
relieved her by remarking,

"Ugh! The red-head kill deer. Two Arrows show him how. Good."

One of the miners had ridden out from the line of march and returned
with another deer, so that fresh venison was plentiful in the camp. Two
Arrows felt no longing for any more hunting that day, and he bluntly
said so. It was ten times more to his liking to ride along with the
train and keep his eyes busy. He was studying white men, and all the
world knows what a curious study they are. One white boy was also
studying him and his sister, and could not understand them at all.
Sile's eyes and thoughts ran about over everything he heard or saw
until he almost had a headache.

"Tell you what, father," he said to the judge, "when we go into camp
again I'm going to show them my box."

"It's a curiosity box. Show it to them."

The road was necessarily somewhat rough, and wagoning was slow work, and
before sunset a place was chosen for an all-night camp. Then came Sile's
experiment. He hauled a stoutly-made, leather-covered trunk out of one
of the wagons, before the eyes of Two Arrows and Na-tee-kah, and it was
instantly evident that neither had ever seen one, but that both
understood its use. He unstrapped it, but it did not open, and he made
them try it. Lock and key were mysteries they had no thought of, and
they almost started back with surprise when Sile pushed a thin bit of
steel into one side of that contrivance and all the upper part of it
could be tipped right over.

Sile's "box" would have been fi