When Ugly Elk sets up the war-pole, an’ calls to his young men to make ready to go against the Pawnees to take skelps an’ steal ponies, Strike Axe is the first to beat the war-pole with his stone club, an’ his war pony is the first that is saddled for the start.
Strike Axe has a squaw an’ the name of the squaw is the Feather. Of the girls of the Sioux, the Feather is one of the most beautiful. Yet she is restless an’ wicked, an’ thinks plots an’ is hungry
Yellow Face, the bad medicine man, has made a spell over the Feather. Yellow Face hates Strike Axe because of so much big talk about him. Also, he loves the Feather an’ would have her for his squaw. He tells her she is like the sunset, but she will not hear; then he says she is like the sunrise, but still she shakes her head, only she shakes it slow; so at last Yellow Face tells her she is like the Wild Rose, an’ at that she laughs an’ listens.
But the Feather will not leave Strike Axe an’ go with Yellow Face, for Strike Axe is a big fighter; an’ moreover, he kills many elk an’ buffalo, an’ his lodge is full of beef an’ robes, an’ the Feather is no fool. Besides, at this time her heart is not bad, but only restless.
Then Yellow Face sees he must give her a bad heart or he will never win the Feather. So Yellow Face kills the Great Rattlesnake of the Rocks, who is his brother medicine, an’ cooks an’ feeds his heart to the Feather. Then she loves Yellow Face an’ hates Strike Axe, an’ would help the Yellow Face slay him. For the heart of the Great Rattlesnake of the Rocks is evil, an’ evil breeds evil where it touches, an’ so the Feather’s heart turns black like the snake’s heart which she swallowed from the hand of Yellow Face.
Strike Axe does not know what the Feather an’ Yellow Face say an’ do, for he is busy sharpening his lance an’ making arrows to shoot against the Pawnees, an’ his ears an’ eyes have no time to run new trails. But Strike Axe can tell that the Feather’s heart is against him; an’ this makes him to wonder, because he is a big fighter; an’ besides he has more than any Sioux, meat an’ furs an’ beads an’ blankets an’ paint an’ feathers, all of which are good to the eyes of squaws, an’ the Feather is no fool. An’, remembering these things, Strike Axe wonders an’ wonders; but he cannot tell why the heart of the Feather is against him. An’ at last Strike Axe puts away the puzzle of the Feather’s heart.
“It is a trail in running water,” says Strike Axe, “an’ no one may follow it. The heart of a squaw is a bird an’ flies in the air an’ no one may trace it.” With that, Strike Axe washes his memory free of the puzzle of the Feather’s heart an’ goes away to the big trees by the Yellowstone to hunt.