"Lean Wolf, tell my brother Sun Bird that I will go with him to fight the Blackfeet," he said, quietly.

"It is good," replied Lean Wolf.

"See, pretty soon it will be dark," said White Otter. "You must go with me to my people."

"No, I will go back," Lean Wolf told him. "I was going to your village to find you. Then I saw you here. It is good. I have brought you the words of your brother Sun Bird. It is what I set out to do. I have done it. Now I will turn back. Sun Bird is waiting."

"Go, my brother," replied White Otter. "Tell Sun Bird that I will come to meet him at the end of three suns. If I do not come then he must wait one sun more. Then if I do not come he will know that something bad has happened to me. Now I am going away."

They parted without further ceremony, riding away into the twilight in opposite directions. Once they had separated neither looked back. After he had ridden a short distance, however, White Otter raised his head and uttered the wild, piercing war cry of the Dacotahs. It echoed defiantly across the plain, and the young war chief thrilled at the sound. Then, after a short silence, it was answered from the west. White Otter laughed gleefully as he raced his pony toward the Sioux camp.


CHAPTER II

OFF ON THE WAR TRAIL