Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

"Dead," said Jack; "do you mean that I killed him?"

"I expect so," said Hugh, "and a good job, too." He lit a match, and stooping down, looked at the man's face and moccasins, and then spoke to Fox Eye and to the other men, who by this time had come up and were crowding about them, and then turned to Jack and said, "He's an Assinaboine, and a horse thief, and you done mighty well to shoot just the way you did. If you hadn't done that we might all have been left afoot before morning; no reason why he shouldn't have taken every hoof of stock there is in the camp. You done well, son, and I'm mighty glad of it; but how did you come to see him?"

Jack told how it was that he could not sleep, and how he had gone out of the lodge to stretch his legs, in the hope that this would make sleep come; and he gave a detailed account of all he had seen and thought and done. When he had finished, Hugh said to him again, "You done well. No man could have done better, and when you get back to the camp I expect these Indians'll think more of you than ever. Are you sure that when the man was trying to get up you touched him with your gun?"

"Why yes, of course I am, Hugh; I gave him a right hard punch with it, and he lay down right off."

"Well, if that's so, you've not only killed an enemy, but you've counted coup on him, and that makes you a warrior right off. All these people here have been thinking of you as just a boy, but from now on they'll say that you're a sure enough man, all right."

While they were talking, Hugh and Jack had returned to Fox Eye's lodge, in which his wife had built up a brilliant fire. They sat down there, and while Hugh told the woman what had happened, she was warming up a kettle of food, and presently set some of it before the two. While they were eating, Fox Eye came in, followed by several men, one of whom carried in his hand the scalp of the enemy and another his bow case and quiver. The scalp was, of course, the first that Jack had ever seen, and he looked at it with some awe, nor could he rid himself of a feeling of a good deal of solemnity when he thought that he had killed a man. Joe, who had come into the lodge and sat down near him, spoke to him presently, and said, "My friend, I am glad that you have done this great thing. You have shown that you are brave. I wish that I had had the chance."

"Well," said Jack, "I wish you had had it; you could have done as much with your bow as I did with my gun."

"Weren't you afraid," said Joe, "when you ran up to that person lying on the ground?"

"No," said Jack, "I didn't think about being afraid. I expect I didn't know enough to be scared. The only thing I was afraid of was that he'd get up and run away."

Meantime, Hugh had been talking to the men, and presently, when he stopped, Fox Eye spoke for quite along time. After he had finished, Joe whispered to Jack: