"It is good," declared the Minneconjoux.
They picketed the ponies in the bottom of the ravine, and then most of the war party crawled up the steep bank to watch the plain. It was almost dark, and they wondered why Feather Dog and Proud Hawk had failed to join them. They looked anxiously toward the east in the hope of seeing the scouts. Then they suddenly heard a chorus of piercing yells and whoops far across the plain and they looked toward the sounds. The noise seemed to come from the vicinity of the ridge, and some distance to the southward.
"Perhaps our enemies have crossed the ridge; we must watch sharp," Sun Bird cautioned them.
The light was almost gone, and it was difficult to see far across the plain. The wild commotion continued, however, and, guided by the sounds, the Sioux strained their eyes in an attempt to learn the cause of the disturbance. Then some of them discovered what appeared to be a company of horsemen racing along parallel with the ridge.
"It is the war party!" they cried. "It must be the Blackfeet. They are riding this way!"
"See, see, some one is chasing them!" said Sitting Eagle.
They made out another company of riders who were apparently pursuing the horsemen ahead of them. The discovery filled the Sioux with alarm. It appeared as if both the Blackfeet and the Crows were racing toward the ravine. In a few moments, however, darkness closed down and blotted them from sight. Then the wild tumult suddenly ceased, and the Sioux were left without a clew to the location of their foes.
"It is bad," Sun Bird declared, uneasily. "Those riders were coming this way. Now we do not know what has become of them. Perhaps they are in this gully. Perhaps they will come here. We must watch and listen."
The Minneconjoux heard him in silence. They were bewildered by the sudden turn of fortune which shattered their fancied security and threatened to expose them to their foes. The possibilities were alarming. Thoroughly alive to their own peril, they were even more concerned for the safety of their absent comrades. They wondered what had happened to White Otter and his companions. Where were Feather Dog and Proud Hawk? Why had Running Dog failed to warn them of the approaching war parties? Had those brave scouts been trapped and destroyed by their foes? The Sioux weakened at the thought.
Sun Bird was particularly disturbed at the possibility of harm having come to his friend, White Otter, and his brother, Little Raven. The hot fighting blood surged to his brain as he pictured his tribesmen in the hands of his foes. He soon dismissed that possibility, however, for he knew that neither White Otter nor Lean Wolf would ever permit themselves to be taken alive. The thought suggested the still more alarming possibility that they had been killed. Sun Bird, however, refused even to consider it.