  Since their supply of meat was almost all used, Great Bear decided he should get a buffalo. While Great Bear was gone, Little Bear busied himself around the camp. He took the ropes with which the Pawnee horses had been hobbled and spliced them to make two long ropes. The long ropes could be used to tie packs onto the backs of horses. He was just finishing when Grandfather returned to camp. Grandfather had killed and butchered a fat buffalo cow. He had the meat tied in two large bundles, each bundle wrapped in half of the buffalo hide. They used one of the ropes Little Bear had spliced and tied the packs securely on the back of one of the captured horses. “We shall ride west until time to make camp,” Great Bear decided. “Tomorrow we shall go south and west to see if we can find our enemy’s trail.” As both of them were tired from the long, hard day’s ride, they stopped early to make camp. Great Bear selected a small valley in which there was a large grove of trees. Wood was plentiful and as they were so deep within Sioux territory, it was safe to build a fire. When the fire died down to embers, Great Bear roasted buffalo tongue over the coals. Little Bear gorged himself on the delicious meat. They made an early start the next morning. It was a cloudy, damp day and Little Bear began to wonder if he had made a mistake, urging Grandfather to return to pursuit of the Crow. Spirit-of-Water-That-Falls had promised a victory over the Crow. But the Spirit had allowed a victory over the Pawnees. Perhaps one victory was all the Spirit intended for them to win. “It looks as though the Great Spirit will send more rain to hide the Crow’s trail again,” Grandfather said, interrupting Little Bear’s thoughts. “We must be getting near the Crow.” Little Bear spoke encouragingly. “We should be,” Great Bear agreed. “After the big rain, the Crow must have seen signs of the Pawnees. He would lose much time hiding his trail from them.” “We’ll catch him,” Little Bear insisted stoutly. By noon, when they stopped to rest their horses and cook food for themselves, the rain Great Bear had expected began to fall. It was only a light mist, but a light breeze from the southeast drove it into their faces. Little Bear noticed Grandfather was constantly casting anxious glances towards the north. “Why do you watch the north?” Little Bear asked. “I am afraid Old-Man-of-the-North is getting ready to send snow,” Great Bear explained. “Not this early,” Little Bear protested. “We have had no ice yet.” “Sometimes Old-Man-of-the-North is unreasonable,” Great Bear answered. “It seems all of the spirits have been working to protect the Crow. I feel Old-Man-of-the-North is sending snow.” “Then let’s lose no time,” Little Bear urged. “We must find the Crow’s trail before snow covers it.” Grandfather nodded. “We are now on Crow hunting grounds,” he said. “We cannot go much farther.” When they started again, Little Bear took charge of the captured horses so that Grandfather could give all of his attention to looking for the Crow’s trail. The rain was becoming heavier, but it was warm rain. Great Bear’s fears that Old-Man-of-the-North was sending snow seemed foolish. Little Bear’s spirits rose. He knew Grandfather was sure they were near the Crow. Otherwise the old warrior would not take the time to follow so zig-zag a course. So Little Bear was not greatly surprised when Grandfather pulled his horse to a stop and triumphantly pointed to the ground. “Here’s the Crow’s trail,” Great Bear announced. Little Bear rode alongside. Both of them dismounted and studied the marks left by the horses. “I don’t see a track made by the horse with a stone bruise,” Little Bear said doubtfully. “He could be at the head of the string,” Great Bear pointed out, “or since the ground is soft from so much rain, the bruise may have healed quickly. I am sure this is the Crow’s trail.” Little Bear knew Grandfather’s ability at reading signs on a trail too well to doubt his explanation. “The trail is new,” Little Bear suggested. “The Crow cannot be far ahead.” “You are learning to read trail signs.” Grandfather nodded approvingly. “We must go carefully so that the Crow will not know we are near. You stay behind with our horses. I will scout ahead.” Little Bear waited until Grandfather was many paces ahead before he started with the horses. The trail followed the low lands where the Crow could travel easily. Evidently he was so sure no one was following him that he didn’t even stop on high ground to watch the trail behind him. Occasionally while Grandfather was carefully making his way to high ground to get a better look ahead, Little Bear would dismount and study the Crow’s trail. Even if Old-Man-of-the-North did send the snow Grandfather feared, the Crow wouldn’t escape. Grandfather was sure to lead a raid against the Crow’s camp tonight. With a fire in front it made a comfortable shelter Without warning the wind switched to the north. Strong gusts whipped rain into Little Bear’s face. It wasn’t long until the rain carried an icy sting and flakes of snow were floating among the rain drops. In a surprisingly short time the rain had completely changed to driving snow. Grandfather waited for Little Bear in the shelter of a clump of trees. “We must make camp,” Great Bear told him. “These early storms are often bad in this country.” Little Bear jumped from his horse and quickly pulled the bundles off the pack horse. He turned the horses loose to graze before snow could cover the grass. Both he and Great Bear worked rapidly making camp. There were many dry branches under the trees. These they heaped in a pile for firewood. They had just turned to the work of cutting green poles to use in building a lean-to shelter when the snow quit falling. The wind died down, and there was a rift in the clouds to the west letting the sun shine through. “It’s over,” Little Bear exclaimed. “Now we can get back on the trail.” “It’s only a lull,” Great Bear warned without stopping work. “It will be worse in a few minutes.” Great Bear was proved right almost at once. The wind came up again, driving icy snow into their faces. The trees with their low branches offered some protection, but even here the swirling snow made it difficult for Little Bear and his grandfather to see. They worked as rapidly as possible. They drove two large poles into the ground and lashed a third pole to those two. Great Bear laid smaller poles with one end against the cross pole and the other on the ground. Little Bear helped pile branches against the poles until the shelter was completed. The finished shelter was a lean-to, closed to the north and open to the south. Grandfather started a fire on the south side of the lean-to where some of the heat would reflect back into the shelter. Little Bear went to a near-by pine tree and broke off great armfuls of small branches. He shook the snow from these and piled them in the lean-to. He spread the buffalo robes over the branches. With a fire in front the lean-to made a comfortable shelter. Great Bear took enough meat from one of the packs for a couple of meals. He rerolled the pack and hung it and the other pack of meat in a tree. “Animals can’t get our food there,” he said. Little Bear shivered as he thought of the kind of camp they would have had to make if the snow had caught them on the prairie. Out on the plains with no protection from the wind, it would have been almost impossible to make a camp and find fuel. Still Little Bear knew that if he hadn’t coaxed Grandfather to continue in pursuit of the Crow, the two of them might now be safe in the main Sioux camp. “It is my fault Old-Man-of-the-North caught us here with his snow,” Little Bear admitted. Great Bear looked at him thoughtfully. “It doesn’t matter whether we are here or far to the north,” Great Bear answered. “Old-Man-of-the-North would have found us with his snow. The Crow has strong medicine. The spirits are protecting him.” “Yet we are nearer to him than we have been before,” Little Bear pointed out. “He can’t run from us until the storm stops and then he will leave a plain trail.” “That is true,” Great Bear agreed hopefully. “Perhaps his medicine is not as strong as I thought.” For a time they sat in silence. The wind rose, and the drifting snow seemed to close them off from the rest of the world. If the storm continued this way much longer, drifts would be piled so high the horses would not be able to wade through them. A short time before, Little Bear had been eager to keep Great Bear searching for the Crow. The storm showed him they should start for the Sioux winter camp as soon as possible. “Will the storm be over so we can start for camp tomorrow, Grandfather?” he asked. Great Bear raised his eyes from the fire. “Not tomorrow,” he replied. “Perhaps the day after. But we are not starting back without the horses that Crow stole from our herd.” Little Bear gave him a surprised look. “The Crow’s trail will be covered,” Little Bear protested. “We may not need to find the trail,” Grandfather said thoughtfully. “Tell me about that dream you had at the place of water-that-falls.” Little Bear related what seemed to have happened in his dream. Great Bear listened closely as his grandson told about the part where he and the warrior had ridden the roan horse and especially to the part where they had walked to the Crow’s camp during a snowstorm. “It must have been a message.” Great Bear nodded at the end. “It is the very place the Crow would pick to camp until this storm is over.” Little Bear began to take new hope. “Do you have a plan, Grandfather?” he asked excitedly. “If it is still snowing in the morning, we may be able to surprise the Crow and get the horses,” Great Bear said. “If it stops snowing before morning, we will get the horses tomorrow night.” “Wouldn’t it be better to get them tonight?” Little Bear urged. “We know the Crow will be in camp now. In this storm he won’t expect a raid.” “There are several reasons why we couldn’t get them tonight,” Great Bear pointed out. “It would be difficult to find our way. Besides, we might not be able to get the horses to move out of the valley in the dark and the storm.” “How shall we be able to get them in daylight?” Little Bear wondered. “I believe the place where the Crow is camped is a small canyon like Buffalo Trap Canyon,” Great Bear explained. “It has only one entrance and the Crow won’t be camped there. He will find a protected place behind some trees. The horses will be at the north end of the canyon where high cliffs will protect them. If we are careful, we may be able to get all of the Crow’s horses without his seeing us.” “Tomorrow we will get the horses,” Little Bear vowed. There was no sign of the storm’s lessening. To Little Bear it seemed the wind was blowing harder than before. As darkness deepened, the fire lighted up a space of only a few feet in each direction. Before he crawled into his buffalo robe, Great Bear rolled two large branches on the fire. “These will hold fire until morning,” he said. |
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