CHAPTER IX
ANXIOUS MOMENTS
After White Otter and his companions left them, the Minneconjoux war party rode cautiously toward the north to find the hiding place of which Dancing Rabbit had told. They realized the peril to which they were exposing themselves, and Sun Bird took every precaution to guard against blundering upon the Blackfeet. Running Dog and a companion scouted to the westward, Feather Dog and Proud Hawk again reconnoitered toward the east, and Sun Bird, Sitting Eagle and the lad, Dancing Rabbit, rode in advance.
"How far away is this place?" Sun Bird asked, anxiously.
"It begins over there where you see those little trees," replied Dancing Rabbit, as he pointed to a few stunted cottonwoods some distance ahead of them.
"Yes, I know about that place," declared Sitting Eagle. "I have been there. It is a good place to hide in."
Dancing Rabbit said that the shelter toward which they were moving was a deep ravine which formerly had been the bed of a good-sized stream. It extended directly across the plain from west to east, and went to the very foothills of the great mountains. The young Minneconjoux declared that, once in the bottom of that deep ravine, the war party would be invisible to their foes, and it would be possible to remain hidden until they reached the timbered ridges.
"It is good," declared Sun Bird. "When we get to that place we will hide in the day, and travel toward the mountains when it gets dark."
Before they reached the ravine, however, they saw a horseman ride cautiously over the ridge to the westward. When he reached the bottom of the slope he rode rapidly to and fro, and appeared to be trying to attract the attention of Sun Bird and his companions. It was the danger signal, and the Minneconjoux watched him with grave attention. When he saw that he had attracted their notice, he stopped and raised his right hand above his head. Then he suddenly swept it downward and backward. It was the signal to approach. Although he was a considerable distance away, Sun Bird and Sitting Eagle agreed that it was Running Dog.