Wandering Bear, the medicine man captured by Buffalo Bill, was a shrewd old scoundrel, gifted not only with many natural qualities, but some acquired ones, for the part he played as medicine man of the Blackfeet.
Like most, if not all, medicine men among savage peoples, he resorted to tricks, some of them very clever; and one of his tricks was akin to that shown on many a theatrical stage to-day, the getting out of tightly set cords bound about his wrists and ankles.
For a long time after darkness fell, old Wandering Bear lay twisting quietly at the cords that held him.
He had seen Buffalo Bill paint and decorate himself and depart, and he guessed shrewdly what that meant.
Also he saw that the white rangers were close down to the village, in the scrub that covered the sides of the hills, and he was sure that an attack on the village was contemplated, and that the departure of the pretended medicine man had something to do with it and could mean nothing but harm to the Blackfeet.
He thought most of himself and his personal peril, as was but natural. What these white men would do to him eventually he did not know, but he anticipated nothing less than death. As for the other Blackfoot, the one who had come to meet him and had been captured by Buffalo Bill, Wandering Bear paid slight attention to him; his own safety was the thing for which he longed and now worked.
At last the cords on his wrists fell away, and by some clever twisting he got his hands down to his ankles and untied the cords that held them.
After thus releasing himself, he lay a while, stretching his arms and legs, to get them in condition. Then suddenly he bounded to his feet with a startling yell, knocked over the ranger who stood close by him, and was gone like a shot out of a gun.
The rangers did not even fire a shot at him, for they did not wish to announce to the Blackfeet below that they were so close to the village. Yet they pursued the escaping medicine man, a pursuit that was hopeless from the first.
He disappeared, to appear in the Blackfoot village, leaping on and denouncing Buffalo Bill, to the amazement of the Blackfeet who heard and saw him.