Afterwards, I learned that I had not left the elk long before Washakie came and took the entrails out of it, and as he did not see my horse, he thought that I had gone to camp. Before following the elk, he had tied my horse to a tree, but it had broken loose and run away. When Washakie reached camp, some Indians told him that they had seen my horse loose with the saddle on. He did not know what to do. Mother was frantic. She started right out to hunt me, and a big band of Indians followed her.
A little while after dark I heard the strange noise they were making. I thought the Crows were after me; so I kept quiet, but pretty soon I heard some one calling—“Yagaki! Yagaki!” Then I knew that it was one of our Indians, so I answered him. In a little while there was a crackling of brush right under my tree.
“Where were you?” he shouted.
“Here I am,” I said.
“What were you doing up there?” he asked.
“Looking for my horse.”
“Well, you won’t find him up there,” he said. “Come down here.”
I minded him in a hurry.
“Now, get on behind me,” he said; “the whole tribe is looking for you, and your poor mother is nearly crazy about you. It would be better for her if some one would kill you, and I have a notion to do it. It would save her lots of trouble.”
When he got out of the timber, he began to halloo just as loud as he could to let the rest know that I was found. Then I could hear the Indians yelling all through the woods. We reached camp before mother came in, and I wanted to go back to look for her, but Hanabi would not let me. She said that I might get lost again; that I had given mother trouble enough for one night.