Hawk Eye

For some time the boys kept their gaze directed toward the canoes, but no second brave dared to venture toward them, although they lay only a few yards distant from the edge of the timber. Slow Dog and his companion were held at bay by the watchful eyes of the two boys. A bullet would be their answer to any attempt to reach the canoes.

The canoes now became the chief object of interest to all concerned. Slow Dog realized that if the boys should succeed in reaching the canoes they could escape. This, of course, they could not hope to do as long as daylight lasted nor even when night should arrive, unless it were a very dark one, since he and his comrade were armed with bow and arrows. On the other hand, he knew, now that the boys had possession of the guns, that it would be almost certain death to venture on the beach so long as there was sufficient light to enable Hawk Eye to aim with his gun.

"Let them make the first move," thought the crafty Medicine Man.

In the meantime Hawk Eye and Raven Wing were making plans for the coming of darkness. As the sun's last rays faded away and the night began to deepen, Hawk Eye moved close to the entrance of the cave. Adjusting his gun to his satisfaction, he marked its position exactly on the rock so that, when the canoes should be entirely hidden from sight, he could make reasonably certain of hitting any object directly in front of them. And in order to show Slow Dog that he and Raven Wing were still on the alert, he shortly aimed at the canoes, which were now invisible, and fired.

CHAPTER XVI

"I think I have a plan that will work well," he said. "Come here, Ohitika," he cried, squatting down on the floor of the cave. The faithful dog came fawning to his feet.

"Smell, smell!" he commanded, placing the blood stained gunstock close to the dog's nose.

Ohitika answered with a growl. It was enemy smell to him. He had not forgotten that Slow Dog had kicked him.

"Take your gun and hold the dog by the collar," said Hawk Eye to Raven Wing. Again resting his gun on the ledge of rock, he fired. Before the echoes of the report had died away, a second arrow entered the cave's mouth and struck the rock wall in the rear.

"Come, follow me, before Slow Dog finds time to fit another arrow to his bow," said Hawk Eye.

Raven Wing obeyed. When out of the cave, and to one side of the opening, Hawk Eye seized Raven Wing's loaded gun and gave him his. "Load it," he said in a low voice, grasping the leather thong about Ohitika's neck to give Raven Wing the free use of both hands. Then, like three shadows, the two boys and the dog, glided into the dense darkness. Almost immediately Hawk Eye released his hold upon the dog and whispered, "Go get him! Go get him!"

As Ohitika darted off in the murky darkness, Raven Wing all but tripped over the body of the Chippeway he had killed. Forgetting the urgent need to reach the canoes, he felt with his hand for the Chippeway's scalp lock. Grasping it tightly in his left hand, he deftly circled it at its base with his knife and tore it away.

"You are now a warrior," whispered Hawk Eye.

Groping their way toward the beach, they made as much speed as safety would permit. Hawk Eye's course proved straight and true and in a few minutes they heard the river water lapping at the sand. Suddenly, from a distance, came a series of yaps and barks. Confident that Ohitika aided by the darkness would be above to hold Slow Dog at bay for a reasonable length of time, Hawk Eye whispered, "I must find the body of the Chippeway I killed!" Hardly were the words out of his mouth when he came upon it stretched over the bow of one of the canoes.

As he bent over to obtain the highly prized scalp, Raven Wing noiselessly launched the two enemy canoes and gave them a push to set them in the current. The paddles, which he had removed before launching, he laid in his own canoe, but as he was about to set it afloat, Hawk Eye said;

"We can't leave the dog."

"It is the only way out," answered Raven Wing. "Come, push off your canoe."

"No," said Hawk Eye. "I will not leave Ohitika."

For a moment Raven Wing paused. Then, seizing hold of Hawk Eye's canoe, he dragged it off the beach. As the yelps and barks drew nearer, he climbed into his. Hawk Eye, stepping slowly into his craft, sat down and raised his gun to his shoulder.

Suddenly the barking changed to a yell of pain.

"Ohitika has been hit by an arrow," cried Hawk Eye, and he fired his gun into the air.

"'Twill warn Slow Dog to halt and also enable Ohitika to lay a straight course to us," went on Hawk Eye.

As the canoes began to drift away from shore, the sound of a sudden splash caused Hawk Eye to exclaim in a low voice, "Ohitika is swimming toward us."

Laying down his gun, he picked up his paddle and noiselessly dipped it in the water to check the canoe's progress.

CHAPTER XVII

There being neither moon nor stars, Hawk Eye could no longer make out the shore line, but as he softly dipped his paddle, his ears caught the sound of a faint wheeze close at hand, followed by a muffled bark. Dropping the paddle, he leaned over the side of the canoe and lifted in his faithful dog. As he laid the animal down, the feathered end of an arrow brushed his cheek. Gently feeling with his fingers, he found that the barb had only slantingly penetrated the fleshy part of the dog's thigh. A short, deft stroke of his knife made it easy to pull out the arrow. Picking up his paddle, he turned the canoe midstream, and after a few strokes came alongside Raven Wing who had been holding his canoe from floating away with the current.

"Come in with me," said Hawk Eye in a low voice. "We must keep together or we may become separated in the darkness."

Raven Wing climbed into Hawk Eye's canoe and held on to his own while Hawk Eye bent to his paddle. In a short time they were far down stream.

At early dawn they came across the two Chippeway canoes. Fastening to each a long strip of buffalo hide, they easily towed them down the river.

It was pleasant paddling as the beautiful Minnesota twisted and turned in its broad and sunny valley. Cottonwood and willow bordered its banks, which rolled back in gentle slopes of pale green, dotted with tree clumps, to the broad prairie. Blooming wild rose vines crept close to the water which sparkled in the sunshine or reflected the tints of the sky.

At its mouth, where it emptied into the Mississippi, the Minnesota spread out around a great flat island.

"We will not beach our canoes here," said Hawk Eye. "Fearless Bear advised me to see the trader on that little island yonder. He is known to deal justly with the red men. The Sioux call him Walking Wind."

Running their own canoes gently up on the sandy beach, they pulled the empty Chippeway canoes a little further up on shore and looked about them.

"Come, we will go to the post," said Hawk Eye, pointing to a building made of native limestone, with shutters and doorways of wood painted white.

As the boys drew near, they noticed groups of Indians with their squaws and Canadian boatmen with pipes in their mouths, gathered in front of a great wing, which on entering they found to be the company store. Blankets, traps, sleigh bells, scarlet cloth, beads, silk handkerchiefs and earbobs lay spread upon long counters. On others, already sorted and packed for shipment, lay pelts of muskrat, fox, wolf, beaver and mink, together with skins of deer and hides of buffalo.

"You need not look for a gun," said Hawk Eye in a low voice, noticing that Raven Wing paid little attention to the display on the counters. "You already have Slow Dog's gun; it is a fine one. But you are in need of powder and bullets, as I am."

As he finished speaking, a white man of about thirty, tall and muscular, came forward and asked them in the Sioux language what they wanted.

Both boys held up their guns and answered that they wished ammunition for their weapons.

"What have you in exchange?" asked the trader.

"We have pelts; they are in our canoes on the beach," said Hawk Eye.

"Bring them here and we will trade," smiled the trader.

As the boys turned to go back to the river, the trader asked; "How came you by the fresh scalps at your belts?"

"We killed two thieving Chippeways," answered Hawk Eye. Here he paused, thinking it best not to mention Slow Dog, for he was a Sioux and the tribe must not be humiliated by the telling of his treachery. "We took their canoes. Will you trade also for canoes?" Hawk Eye continued after a brief silence.

"I will go with you and look at them," answered the trader. Beckoning to three Indians, he accompanied the boys to the river.

"My Indian brothers will help you carry the pelts," he explained as they went along.

On arriving at the shore, the trader's eyes glittered as he looked at the beautifully built Chippeway canoes. "I will take them in trade," he said.

"We would rather part with our own canoes," answered Hawk Eye. "We would be proud to return to our village in our enemy's canoes and with their scalps at our belt."

The trader smiled at the boy's words. "In that case I will be content to take the Sioux-built craft," he said. "The Sioux excels the Chippeway in horsemanship, but does not equal them in canoe building."

In the meantime the three Indians had shouldered most of the cargo. When Hawk Eye and Raven Wing had shouldered the balance, they all set off for the post.

The trader had shown much generosity, agreed the boys as later on they loaded their purchases in the Chippeway canoes. How delighted would be Light Between Clouds with the scarlet cloth, thought Hawk Eye. Bending Willow will appear even more beautiful with the necklace of bright beads at her throat, thought Raven Wing.

CHAPTER XVIII

Black Dog gave them a hearty welcome. For several weeks they enjoyed his hospitality. Further up the river they disembarked at Penichon's village, where an old warrior who had once gone on the warpath with Smoky Wolf, made much of them on learning that they were from the band of his old friend.

"Say to Smoky Wolf," he commanded, as Hawk Eye and Raven Wing took leave of the aged brave, "that I predict you will be great warriors."

Again they beached their canoes on coming to Shakepay's village, the largest of all. And so it went all the way up the sky-tinted water of the curving, twisting river. At Lac Qui Parle, their last stopping place, they visited the village of the Wahpeton Sioux, called the people of the leaves.

Here it was that Raven Wing was reminded of the time, many, many years before, when his grandfather made his first offering to the Great Mystery.

"Red Feather was a great warrior," said an old squaw. "I remember when he was very young that Uncheeda, his grandmother, led him to the top of a high rock from which to fling his most beloved possession into the lake."

"It was a necklace of bear claws, was it not?" asked Raven Wing.

"Yes, my son it was," answered the old squaw.

At length the two boys took leave of the friendly Wahpetons. Indian Summer had come and gone as they rounded the last bend in the river and saw thin smoke rising from their village fires.

Ohitika sensed the nearness of old familiar places and began to bark. The boys bent to their paddles, sending their frail craft along at a faster pace.

The sunshine hung like yellow smoke over Big Stone Lake. Bright-colored leaves, loosed by the wind, scurried along the ground. Only the burr oaks held valiantly to their raiment. A thin crust of ice lay on the quiet waters of slough and marshland, but at warm noon, they again reflected the sky tints of an autumn day. Wild geese honked overhead and wild ducks winged upward from the watery wild rice fields.

On a rise of ground overlooking the river stood two squaws.

"Six moons have waned since our boys left for the trading post," said Light Between Clouds.

"You have counted each moon as I have," sighed Bending Willow. "And since the day Slow Dog disappeared so strangely from our village, my heart has been filled with dread. He has been no friend to me."

"He is jealous of Black Eagle," added Light Between Clouds.

As she finished speaking, Bending Willow started to run down to the river's edge. "I see two canoes rounding the bend," she called back. Light Between Clouds ran swiftly after her.

Black Eagle, just returning with a young deer which he had killed upon his back, let it fall upon the ground on seeing Bending Willow running toward the river. He, too, had been worried over the long absence of his stepson. As he passed Smoky Wolf's tepee, the aged chief, who was smoking beside it, looked up.

"I think Raven Wing and Hawk Eye are coming up the river," cried Black Eagle as he ran on.

Old Smoky Wolf slowly rose to his feet. "I, too, must welcome the young braves," he murmured. In a short time all the men, women and children were standing upon the bank to await the boys' arrival.

As the canoes grated upon the sandy beach, Old Smoky Wolf raised his right arm and shouted, "They come in Chippeway canoes with scalps at their belts. My village has two more warriors to send upon the warpath."

THE END