! it even sort of gave me the
shivers when I first looked at it. What'll we do?"

"Wait till he gets through," cautioned Lowell. "They'd come buzzing out
of those tents like hornets if we broke in now, in all probability."

The sheriff's face hardened.

"Jest the same, that sort of thing ought to be stopped--all of it," he
said.

"Do you stop every fellow that mounts a soap box, or, what's more
likely, stands up on a street corner in an automobile and makes a
Socialist speech?"

"No--but that's different."

"Why is it? An Indian reservation is just like a little nation. It has
its steady-goers, and it has its share of the shiftless, and also it has
an occasional Socialist, and once in a while a rip-snorting Anarchist.
Fire Bear doesn't know just what he is yet. He's made some pretty big
medicine and made some prophecies that have come true and have gained
him a lot of followers, but I can't see that it's up to me to stop him.
Not that I have any cause to love that Indian over there in that
blanket. He's been the cause of a lot of trouble. He's young and
arrogant. In a big city he would be a gang-leader. The police and the
courts would find him a problem--and he's just as much, or perhaps more,
of a problem out here in the wilds than he would be in town."

The sheriff made no reply, but watched Fire Bear narrowly. Soon the
Indian ended his incantations, and the tents of his followers began
opening and blanketed figures came forth. Lowell and the sheriff stepped
out into the glade and walked toward the camp. The Indians grouped
themselves about Fire Bear. There was something of defiance in their
attitude, but the white men walked on unconcernedly, and, without any
preliminaries, Lowell told Fire Bear the object of their errand.

"You're suspected of murdering that white man on the Dollar Sign road,"
said Lowell. "You and these young fellows with you were around there.
Now you're wanted, to go to White Lodge and tell the court just what you
know about things."

Fire Bear was one of the best-educated of the younger generation of
Indians. He had carried off honors at an Eastern school, both in his
studies and athletics. But his haunts had been the traders' stores when
he returned to the reservation. Then he became possessed of the idea
that he was a medicine man. Fervor burned in his veins and fired his
speech. The young fellows who had idled with him became his zealots. He
began making prophecies which mysterious