shooting. His pride was touched in a tender spot,
for although he was sure he had sent an arrow into an Apache, he had
nothing to show for it. Na-tee-kah was enormously proud of that arrow,
and Ha-ha-pah-no was compelled to remind her that her hero brother had
brought in neither scalp nor horse, and had saved his own by the timely
rifle practice of Sile and the men at the gap. For all that, Na-tee-kah
had a vivid persuasion that, if the pale-faces had not interfered and
driven away the Apache, there would have been more glory earned by the
young chief of the Nez Perces. She could not be dissatisfied with Sile,
however. After a brief consultation with his father, the Red-head went
to the wagon and brought out the rifle he had won and with it a box of
cartridges. It was a capital weapon, in good condition, and Sile showed
it to Two Arrows with a great glow on his face and with a sense of
standing up uncommonly straight. Several braves gathered to look at it
and to declare it "heap good gun."

Two Arrows held it for a moment, with a look which did not need any
interpreter. It was intensely wistful, and had a quick flash of keen
jealousy in it. What was there that he could not do with such a splendid
tool of destruction as that, instead of his lance and bow? He was
nothing but a poor red youngster, after all, compelled to wait, he could
not guess how long, before he could hope to be armed as a complete
brave. He held out the rifle to Sile dejectedly, but then something like
a shiver went all over him, for Sile only pushed it back, saying,

"No; Two Arrows keep it. Take present. Good friend." And then he held
out the little waterproof box of copper cartridges of the size called
for by that rifle.

Two Arrows required a breath or so before he could believe that the
thing was a reality, and then he broke out into a yell of delight.

One-eye, standing behind him, began to bark vociferously, although
nobody had given him anything except unlimited bones.

Every Nez Perce brave present deemed it his duty to shake hands with
Sile, and Long Bear was summoned at once to do the same. Two Arrows
found himself terribly short of words to tell how he felt about it, but
he flatly refused to make a trial of that gun then and there. He felt
such a dancing in his head and in his fingers that he was hardly sure he
could hit the side of the mountain, and he did not care to disgrace his
marksmanship before so many crack shots. It even occurr