Little Eagle moved toward the flap of the tepee. In a moment Clawing Bear would make the sign of dismissal. There might still be time to race to the tepee, get his bow and arrows, and join the contest.
“Wait,” Clawing Bear ordered. “You have done better than I expected. As a reward, you may carry some of the poultice with you.”
Little Eagle tried to keep his face from showing the pleased surprise he felt. A real warrior or a real medicine man would have given no sign of pleasure. He watched as Clawing Bear picked up a small bag made from the lining of a deer’s stomach. The medicine man filled it with the mixture from the bowl. Then he took a sack made of soft elk leather and placed the bag of ointment inside the leather sack. He tied the sack with a long thong. He made a knot in the ends of the thong so that the sack would hang at Little Eagle’s belt in the place where a tomahawk would hang when Little Eagle became a warrior.
“What you have learned today may save some Sioux’s life,” Clawing Bear told him solemnly.
Little Eagle tried to find the right words to thank the medicine man. There were words which he should speak, but his tongue couldn’t say them. A brief smile touched the lips of the medicine man.
“I do not care for words,” he said. “Let your deeds thank me.”
Clawing Bear gravely made the sign of dismissal, but Little Eagle didn’t scamper out of the tepee. Instead he stepped out slowly as a warrior would have stepped out of the council wigwam.
When he had gone a few paces, he remembered the other boys. He turned quickly toward his own tepee. He had covered about half of the distance when a commotion near the council wigwam attracted his attention. He turned to look. There was a crowd of warriors near the entrance to the wigwam. A party of Crow chiefs in splendid headdresses was going slowly toward the entrance. Little Eagle had been so busy with his lessons that he had forgotten this was the day for the powwow between the Crow chiefs and the chiefs of his own tribe to start.
Little Eagle stood watching the Crows as they filed into the wigwam. He thought of how bitterly he hated these enemies of his people. Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that the Crow chiefs were brave. The Sioux chiefs had promised them safety while they were in the Sioux camp, but who knew when a young man, anxious to become a warrior, would ambush them on the way to or from their own camp?
Little Eagle’s glance swept over the camp. He saw that there was no real danger to the Crow chiefs. The Sioux dog soldiers had formed a circle around the camp. It was the duty of the dog soldiers to see that camp orders were obeyed. Ordinarily they did little except when they were with a war party or a hunting party. However, now they would see to it that no Sioux left the camp until the Crow chiefs had had time to return to their own camp. Little Eagle was surprised that the teacher and the boys had been allowed to leave camp for the contest. Then he saw that they hadn’t. They were standing with the warriors, watching the Crows.