Little Eagle gave him an answering smile.
“I’ll work hard when we reach winter camp,” he answered. “There is much that I want to learn from Clawing Bear.”
Angry Wolf loafed about the camping place while they waited for the warriors to return. Little Eagle took his cooking pot and put some of the berries in it. He tended the cooking until it was finished. He poured the stuff he had cooked into one of the bags he had used for water. He cooked another bowlful of a mixture of berries and the roots he had brought into camp. When this was done, he poured it into another bag.
The sun was going down when the warriors finally returned. They weren’t driving any Crow ponies and they didn’t have new Crow scalps at their belts. As soon as the warriors had cared for their horses and started to cook their meal, they told what they had found. Little Eagle saw the admiration in their eyes as they talked to Angry Wolf.
“You are almost as wise as a medicine man,” one of the warriors told Angry Wolf. “Your plan of building those fires completely fooled the Crows.”
“We read the trail signs,” another warrior explained. “When the Crows saw the smoke of those fires, they turned and rode away. Truly you are a wise warrior.”
“The Crows had too much of a start for us to catch them,” another warrior said.
“All of the praise goes to Little Eagle,” Angry Wolf said, as soon as he had a chance to speak. “It was Little Eagle who thought of the plans.”
“Clawing Bear will be proud of his pupil,” Happy Otter said. “The whole winter camp will be proud of both of you. You have won a great victory.”
In the morning Little Eagle and Angry Wolf rode with the warriors toward the winter camp. For five suns they went on. There had been no more snow, and most of the first snowfall had melted so the party could go swiftly. On the sixth morning, scouts brought word of a herd of buffaloes to the east. Happy Otter decided that the party would kill as many buffaloes as could be loaded on the extra horses.