Arizona republican., 1905-08-22

imal in a tent at night. They did not dare leave him out with their other horses. They bought a string of bells at the Hudson Bay company's nearest fort put the bells around the horses neck, tied him to a tepee pole inside the big tepee, and set four men to sleep in the tent with him. This was the rule every night, and on no night did the men forget to close the door of the tepee and "cinch" it tight with thongs of buckskin. Whoever could steal that big white beauty of a horse had to be a very clever thief. they thought; but, in truth, they never dreamed that he could be stolen.
 The smartest thief among the Crow Indians told his chief and the head men that he was going to try and get that horse away from the Blackfeet one evening he crawled through the grass to the tall bluff along the Bow river (north of our Idaho, I think. was the locality), where the Blackfeet had their camp. He saw the fast horse led into a certain tent, and he saw the four watchers go in and close the door. Night fell and he crept down the slant ing bluff to the camp. The only thing he had to fear was the barking of some dog. If a dog saw or heard him and parked. that would set all the other dogs to bar king, and he would have to run for Eis life. Stellthily. as only an Indian can move on his softly moe casined feet, this arCn-thief of the thieving Crow nation crept into the Blackfoot camp He had to step over several sleeping dogs, and he did not awaken one. He came to the tent of the white horse. He looked it all over. He went into another uepee and
 
 ried it and set it up against the horses tent.
 A travios is a wheelless wagon the Indians use in the summer. It is made of two long poles with the upper ends near together; the lower. ends spread apart and drag upon the ground. You see, by this description. that if a tTlV- jos is stood on end, it can be made to serve as sort of a ladder. Thus the arch-thief of the Crows used the one he put against the horse tent on it he climbed to the top of the tepee. and from there he got view of the inter for, looking down between the tent poles that formed the side of the chim- ney hole. He saw the horse dimIy, and even more dimly he saw the four men beside the horse, all asleep. He climbed upon the tent piles; he poised his body very nicely in the chimney opening; he dropped fairly and square ly upon the white horses back.
 The instant he felt himself on the back of the beast. his knife, which was in his hand, swept through the cord that tethered the horse. His heels shot against the horses sides. the bells rang out sharp and clear. and the ani- mai snorted with surprise. But the pressure of the thiefs heels urged the animal forward, and as he took one step the man reached out and slit a gash straight up and down through the fas- tened door, which was only bucksl1in. The four Indians leaped to their feet, but the horse and his captor was now out in the open ground, and like the wind shot away from the camp. The watchers ran and yelled, the dogs all parked, the whole tribe ran out of the tents and every man sprang to horse, But what was the use? There was no horse that could catch the animal. and so they all turned sadly home again after a mad ride of a mile or two. The thief rode in triumph home to the tents of the Crows, and from that the tribe owned the great white horse, and his fame and their riches increased From Stories told by Indians" by the late Julian Ralph, in August St. Mich OlaS.