Dusty Star

by Olaf Baker

With the pack about him, Dusty Star sent his mind out to their leader, and communicated the great idea.

And in words which he did not use, even in the Indian tongue, the Idea shaped itself thus:

"Far out along the prairies to the sun-rising is the camp of my people. My people are very many. They outnumber the wolves. As the foxes and lynxes are enemies to the wolves; so my people have enemies who are thirsting for their blood. The enemies of my people are now gathering to attack. They are numerous and very strong. If I do not carry help to my people, they will be pulled down and killed, as the wolves pull down the moose when he is yarded for the winter, and food is scarce. By myself I can do little, though my people say I own the wolf-medicine. But the wolf-medicine that is in me is only strong enough when I am running with a wolf. Kiopo and I are very strong together. With you, we should be stronger still. With the pack, nothing could stand against us. The medicine then would be on many feet. If you will lead the pack, and follow us, we shall save my people from their death."

To get all this meaning into the white wolf's mind, took some time. But the white wolf's mind was like his jaws. Once it took firm hold, it tore the meaning of an idea like meat from off a bone. And when he had snatched the idea and swallowed it, he brought it up again for distribution, as a mother-wolf does for her cubs, in the form of pre-digested meat.

So the white wolf, having carefully digested the idea, disgorged it for the pack's benefit, and fed them bit by bit. And when the pack had swallowed it again, they liked the taste of it, and were ready for anything in the way of a fight. Long after the night had settled down, Dusty Star's excitement kept him awake planning the carrying out of the great idea.

On the evening of the third day, a Scout belonging to the Yellow Dogs took a strange tale back to the tribe. Out on the prairies to the west, he said, he had come upon a great pack of wolves. They were led by a white wolf of enormous size, and were travelling eastwards. As he was uncertain what such a large body of wolves might do, he had not waited to watch their further movements, and had given them a wide berth. The Yellow Dogs did not treat the news seriously. At this time of the year, the wolves, even in large numbers, were not dangerous. Now that hunting was good, they would not attack human beings. It was only in winter, when the moose yarded and game grew scarce, that men watched the gaunt grey bodies that hung about the thickets, and listened uneasily to the eerie cry far off over the frozen levels, as it rang from the throats of a famished pack which had found a promising trail. Besides, the Yellow Dogs had more important matters to consider. Now or never the attack upon Dusty Star's people must be made. The moon was favourable now. She did not rise until a sufficiently long time after sunset to enable them to approach the enemy's camp under cover of the dark, so as to be able to deliver the long-planned attack in the growing light of her beams. Without waiting for any further delay, small scouting parties were ordered to go on ahead; and the advance began.

But there were other scouts abroad, of which neither the Yellow Dogs nor their intended victims were aware. Every thicket, and matted tangle of prairie grass, seemed to conceal one. There was hardly a hollow that did not harbour some crouching form; and the prairie buttes had eyes. As the great Yellow Dog war party moved stealthily forwards, it was shadowed by another company more numerous and more stealthy still. This second company was roughly divided into three main bodies, with small intermediate bands which seemed to move independently, but which were in reality in touch with one or other of the larger groups.

The night was windless and very still, the few vagrant wafts of air which occasionally stirred the prairie grasses, flowing softly from the west. The older and more experienced of the Yellow Dog warriors could not understand the night. From time to time they seemed to catch a faint wolf smell from the west. And the stillness seemed full of some invisible motion as if the very prairies moved. Moreover it was very plain that the ponies were unusually restless. Now one, now another, would snort and whinney, or shy at some vague shadow which melted into the dark.

In the Comanache camp, things were much as they had been for many days past. A careful watch was still kept towards the north. But the general opinion was that the Yellow Dogs had delayed their threatened attack so long that they had at length given up the intention. Spotted Eagle was in his tepee consulting with one or two other chiefs, when suddenly the door flap was raised, and Dusty Star stood before them.

The suddenness of his arrival, and the change wrought in his appearance during his long absence, prevented Spotted Eagle from recognizing in the tall, imposing-looking youth who now stood before him, the wild boy with the wolfish ways who had disappeared mysteriously many moons ago.