“Stay here,” Flying Arrow ordered and trotted off along the line of tepees.
A few moments later, Flying Arrow led a small band of warriors out of camp. Before that band had gone far, a party of mounted warriors, with Chief Barking Wolf at the head, rode out of camp circling toward the land of the setting sun.
Bent Arrow waited impatiently for word of the pursuit. There was some excitement in camp when the two scouts who had been sent out early that morning returned with the report that they had found a large herd of buffaloes. For a while Bent Arrow forgot his worries and spent his time wondering if he would be allowed to go with the hunters. However, as the afternoon wore on, all of his thoughts were on the warriors who were chasing the Sioux.
The sun was almost down when the two parties of warriors returned to camp. Flying Arrow came straight to his own tepee.
“They escaped,” he told Bent Arrow. “They had horses hidden not far from the river. They heard us coming and got too great a start for our warriors to catch them.”
“Will they be back to try to steal our horses?” Bent Arrow asked.
“Possibly not,” Flying Arrow replied. “Sioux like to make winter camp early. That party may start toward their main camp now.”
While Bent Arrow and his uncle were eating their evening meal, a messenger came to the tepee.
“There is to be a buffalo hunt tomorrow,” the messenger announced. “Bent Arrow has been chosen to help tend the horses.”
Bent Arrow was so excited at the messenger’s words that he could scarcely finish his supper. Although the boys who tended the pack horses during a hunt had a difficult time, there was always a chance that they would get to take part in the hunting, too.