When he rode into the old camp, and came to where the lodge had been, he saw there on her knees a woman with an elk robe over her head, and in her hands his paints, which she [[193]]was looking at. When he rode up to her, and when she looked up at him, he saw that she was very pretty, and he liked her as soon as he looked at her; and she, when she saw him, so handsome and finely dressed and painted, liked him.
He made signs to her, saying, “Who are you, and what tribe do you belong to?” She signed back to him that she was a Blackfoot. Then she asked him, “Who and what are you?” He answered, “A Snake.” He asked her by signs, “Where is the party that you are with?” She said, “There are only two of us.” He said, “Come, get on my horse behind me here, and let us go to my camp.” She answered: “No, there are some things that I have here that I want to get. Then I will go with you.” Then she thought a little and said: “The only other person here is my husband. Why do you not kill him? I will help you.” The Snake said: “It is good. I will do it.” The girl said to him: “I will go to him, and do you creep through the brush, and as soon as I see you I will throw my robe around him and hold him, and you can kill him with your lance.” [[194]]
She went back to the camping-place, and when she got there her husband was stooping down hobbling the horses. The Snake was right behind her, creeping through the brush. She walked up to her husband and threw herself down over him, and kissed him while he was hobbling the horses. He looked up at her and laughed. He thought she was only playing with him. In a minute he heard the footsteps of some one coming, running, and he said, “Look out! here comes somebody,” and he tried to throw her off, but he could not. He raised himself up while she clung to him, and the Snake made a pass at him with the lance, but he was afraid of killing the woman, and he missed the man, and Shield Quiver caught hold of the lance. He kept calling to his wife: “Let go of me. This man is trying to kill me. He will kill us both. Let us try to save ourselves.”
Shield Quiver and the Snake wrestled and tugged backward and forward to see who should get the lance. They were both strong men, and at length the shaft broke, and Shield Quiver held the piece on which was the head. Then he jumped back and shook off his wife, and [[195]]rushed at the Snake and thrust the lance into his breast, and so killed him with his own lance.
Then he turned to his wife and said: “Now, woman, I have killed this man that you have tried to help, and I would like to have you tell me what is the reason that you acted as you did, and tried to help him to kill me.”
Then the woman explained her reasons, and said: “When I left you I went into the camp and found this sack of paint, and while I was looking at it he came up and asked me to go to his camp with him, and I liked him, and thought that I would go with him. So we laid a plan to kill you before we went to camp.”
Shield Quiver said to her: “Now, woman, listen. Bearhead wanted you. He has had a good many women, and he has killed all that he had. Through pity I took you. I never expected to take a wife. I will not do anything to you for what you have done to me, but will take good care of you and will give you back to your father.”
He scalped the Snake and took everything that he had. The woman was crying hard. He asked her what she was crying about, and she [[196]]answered: “I am crying for my lover, who is dead.” He said: “Saddle up your horse. We will go home.”
They started, and after many days’ travel reached the Blackfoot camp. It was in the night. The next morning Shield Quiver said to his wife: “Put on your best clothing. I told you I was going to give you back to your father, and I am going to take you there this morning. So get ready to go.”
The woman put on her best clothes, and painted herself up nicely, and they started off to the old chief’s lodge. The old chief was glad to see his son-in-law and his daughter back again. No one knew that Shield Quiver had killed a Snake. He had not spoken of it to any one. After they had sat down the young man reached down into his belt and drew out the scalp and said: “Here, old man, here is all I have done on this journey. I have taken no horses, but I have killed a Snake. I have killed your daughter’s lover. It is only by the help and the power of the Sun that you see me here to-day. Your daughter tried to kill me on this trip, while I was fighting with this Snake Indian. I am afraid to live with her, [[197]]and have brought her back to you again. This is the best I can do, to give you this scalp and your daughter back again.” When Shield Quiver had said this he got up and walked out of the lodge, and went back to his own home. The old man said nothing.