The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-17

scraps of conversation floated up to him
| plainly through the heavy night air;
| innumerable dogs parked and yelped IN
answer to the bowling of the wolves
skulking about the neighboring hills.
Joe well know that somewhere in the
great camp Snake was tied close to the
doorway of Owls Heads lodge; he also
| knew that it would be certain death Tor
him to attempt to enter the camp while
| the people were still up and awake.
| Equally hopeless would be the task of
| finding the lodge and the horse after
the people had retired and the light of
their fires died out; in the thick dark
ness one horse could scarcely be distin-
guished from another. His best chance,
as the old voyageur had predicted, was
to follow Owls Heads tactics, and,
watching his opportunity, steal the
horse from the herd as they grazcd
about on the hills during the day. Hav-
ing made up his mind to do this, Joe
crawled into a thick patch of cherry
and service berry brush he had stum
bled against and, hoping he was net
intruding in the haunt of some rattle
snake, craWled himself up for a sleep
with one hand resting on his rifle, ready
fyr any emergency.
When the boy awolle it was broad
daylight, and, peering through the
bushes, he saw the horses stringing out
to both sides of the valley as the early
rising women unfastened their tethers
and turned them loose. Taking his tel
escope from its case, he carefully ad-
justed it and closely examined the
hon al, Ia f,.A, i1,a
camp; then he looked among those still
tethered in the village His heart leap
ed as he discovered Snake tied by the
doorway of a red-painted lodge. A Wo-
man came out, united the lariat and,
with long, graceful leaps, the beautiful
animal fastened to join its mates on
the other side of the stream. Joe
watched them safely as they moved up
the side of the hill, stopping for bite
here and there as they went, for his
chance to steal the horse that day was
gone; he could not possibly cross tire
valley without being discovered. He
cut some of the brush in the center Ct
the patch and interlaced t in that
standing about him to screen more eff
fectually his hiding place, and then ate
little of the food he had brought
along.
The hours dragged along slowly. The
sun crept up in the sky and beat down
water was most precious now and he
drank of its sparingy. All day long he
lay there in the sitting heat, and it
seemed as if night would never come.
People came and went over the hills in
all directions, often passing close to the
patch of brush. Once a couple of men
came and sat right at the edge of it and
conversed for long time. Joe scarce
ly dared to breathe for fear they would
hear him, and he gave a great sigh of
relief when they finally arose and went
down the hill to the camp. At noon
all the horses were driven in from the
prairie to water and at shutdown they
were again driven in, watered and tied
up about the lodges for the night. With
his telescope Joe saw Owls Head him.
self catch Snake, and after petting it
and stroking its glossy neck tied the an
imal close to the doorway of the lodge, |
The boy now knew just where the horse
was to be found Time and again he
had mapped out the route from his hid |
ing place to the TOUCHDOWN the hill to /
the west end of the camp, then three I
lodges to the left, and from there 1t was |
the second one toward the creek When !
it was quite dark he went down to the |
creek, some distance above the camp, !
drank long and deep of the cool water, |
and bathed his face and head. The I
lodges were astir with life and light, /
and it seemed as if the people never
4;,-a sc ,ai lo, eyn,, ne
and story telling, and go to bed FL
nally. however, the lights of the fires
died out one by one, until all that part
of the camp about Owls Heads lodge |
was dark and silent. Further away a
big dance was still going one, but Joe
could wait no longer,
Going to the edge of the camp he
moved as slowly and cautiously as a
panther toward the lodge. He trembled
a little and there was a choking sensa-
ton in his throat as he strove to dis.
tinguish each dimly seen object in front
If and about him. He was afraid, sore
y afraid and scared as any man would
have been entering the camp Of hos
tile people in the dead of night. But he
would not give way to his feelings and
retire, and at last he stood in front of
OWLS Heads lodge and put his hand on
Snakes satin-coated side. There was
40 mistake, no Indian horse ever wore
such fine smooth hair as that. With
hands he placed his lariat
around the horses neck and then took
nut his knife to cut the other one which
ethered him; just then his rife slipped
rom his grasp, and the iroh-plated butt
struck a stone with a metallic clink.
low his heart seemed to stop at the
ound! But now the rawhide thong
vas cut, and dropping the knife Joe
capped on Snakes back with a mighty
,ound. At the same instant there was
binding flash of light from the door
way of the lodge, a deafening report,
nd the ugly whiz of ball singing
through space. Snake leaped so sud-
enly at the fash of the gun that Joe
vas bounced far back on his rump,
early falling off; but he quickly re- ;
aimed his seat, and together they went /;
lying out over the fiat and up the hill {