"Then you have my permission to go," said Light Between Clouds, turning to Hawk Eye. "And may the Great Spirit look kindly upon your adventure."

Without further words, she turned on her heel and walked toward a nearby lodge.

"So your mother is willing that you should go," said Raven Wing.

"Yes, she has given her consent, as you have heard," answered Hawk Eye.

"Why did she leave us so suddenly?" asked Raven Wing, doubtfully.

"She has gone for moccasins, I think," replied Hawk Eye. "My grandmother is skilful at making them; she always keeps a supply on hand."

"You have more pelts than I have," remarked Raven Wing, lingering a moment to watch Hawk Eye deftly pack the skins in several bundles of convenient size.

"We will need two canoes; yours and mine," said Hawk Eye. "But should one be damaged during the trip, we can get along with one. We must lose no time in starting."

"I will be ready as soon as you are," answered Raven Wing. He returned to his lodge, gathered together his pelts, which were already packed in several bundles, and carried them down to the river. Hawk Eye, having more experience, attended to the loading of the frail vessels.

During the loading and packing, Ohitika, Hawk Eye's favorite dog, watched the proceedings in silence. Except for an occasional wag of his tail, he stood still, showing no impatience.

"I would like to take Ohitika," said Hawk Eye. "He is my favorite dog, my friend. My father found him in a deserted Chippeway village five years ago. He was but a puppy then, his mother and the rest of the litter had been killed by wolves, and father discovered him lying in an old woodchuck hole. Father bundled him in his blanket and brought him home to me. I named him Ohitika because he was so brave even as a pup.

At first he was my playmate, but he has become my hunting companion. I hate to leave him behind. But to make room for him it will be necessary to place one of my packs in your canoe."

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Bow and arrows.}]

"That can easily be done," answered Raven Wing. "I have fewer packs than you."

"I shall take my father's gun, also," went on Hawk Eye, as he transferred a bundle of pelts to Raven Wing's canoe. "I am glad that I have learned to use it. It is a fine gun, as Running Deer, my father, often said. He was not given to boast of his prowess as a hunter, but always claimed it was due to his gun that he rarely missed the mark."

"I must have a gun," cried Raven Wing. "A fine gun, like yours. Do you think my stock of pelts will bring me one?"

"If you are clever at trading," answered Hawk Eye with a chuckle. "And if not," he added kindly, "you shall have some of mine to fill in."

When the last pack had been carefully loaded, Hawk Eye looked critically at his work. "You have displayed much skill," observed Black Eagle, who came up at that moment.

"I took pains to watch the hunters load their craft at sunup," said Hawk Eye.

"Safe carriage depends on good loading as well as skill with the paddles," said Black Eagle. "Be sure you re-load as well after making portage below Lac Qui Parle. You will come to a succession of rapids after leaving the lake behind you."

Black Eagle might have said more had not Bending Willow at that point arrived with a bundle.

"I have brought you maple sugar," she explained, handing the package to Raven Wing. "'Tis some that I had on hand from the sugar camp."

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Map of Minnesota.}]

As she finished speaking, Light Between Clouds came running toward them.

"These dried buffalo tongues will come in handy should you not find plenty of game," she cried, giving the bundle to Hawk Eye.

Sensing that the departure was at hand, Ohitika waited no longer, but leaped lightly into his master's craft. Stepping into their canoes, the boys raised their paddles, then dipped them into the water and made for the middle of the river.

CHAPTER IV

JEALOUS SLOW DOG

From his tepee Slow Dog gloomily watched the departure of Raven Wing and Hawk Eye, and his roving eye fell on the graceful figure of Bending Willow, who was waving a brave farewell to her only son, now fast becoming a young brave.

Bending Willow was the daughter of a haughty chief of the Spirit Lake and Leaf Dweller Sioux, and was considered the most beautiful woman in the tribe. When widowed at the age of twenty, she had bravely a.s.sumed the care and bringing up of her son.

Slow Dog had early realized that if he married her his influence in the tribe would be greatly increased, and resenting her preference to cherish in widowhood the memory of her husband, had been a persistent although an unsuccessful suitor.

The day had come, however, when Slow Dog's tepee grew lonely, and many hours had been spent near that of Taopee, whose fat daughter did beadwork while Slow Dog played on a reed flute. In due course of time a pony, two guns and some blankets had secured the bride, who, veiled with a blanket was taken to her lover's lodge and left there by a friend.

From then on Slow Dog was busy with practical things, for the father-in-law's family must be provided with game for a year, or until a little papoose should swing from a lodge pole. Notwithstanding that his lodge was no longer lonely, the heart of Slow Dog still yearned for the beautiful Bending Willow.

In the early part of the previous autumn Bending Willow had returned from the wild rice fields where she and the women of the tribe had reaped a goodly harvest. a.s.sisted by a young squaw named Wadutah, she had pitched her tepee in one of the villages of the Sisseton Sioux along the southern sh.o.r.e of Big Stone Lake.

Black Eagle, a great warrior and a wise counsellor, was generally regarded as the successor to Old Smoky Wolf when the aged chief should take the trail of departed warriors. Out of deference to the memory of his friend, Lone Star, Black Eagle had long refrained from approaching Bending Willow, whom he had always admired. But just before the winter season had set in, he had pressed his suit and Bending Willow had consented to become his wife, for she, too, had often marked the prowess and wisdom of her husband's companion. A marriage feast had been celebrated and she had entered Black Eagle's lodge.

Slow Dog had long coveted the leadership of the tribe. He had plotted secretly to overthrow the rule of Old Smoky Wolf, but his efforts had been in vain. Black Eagle's popularity had been greatly increased by his marriage, which only added to the jealousy of Slow Dog.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Canoe on the river.}]

"With Bending Willow in his lodge, Black Eagle will prove a worthy successor to Old Smoky Wolf," Slow Dog had often heard old squaws remark, nodding their gray heads over their beadwork.

Slow Dog had not joined the braves, women and children who had gathered at the river bank to speed the departure of the boys. His long-nursed jealousy kept him away from the crowd of well-wishers. But his keen eyes noted as Hawk Eye and Raven Wing rounded a bend in the river and were lost to sight, that Black Eagle had stepped into his canoe and paddled northward.

Was Black Eagle merely going to fish in Big Stone Lake, from whose southern boundary flowed the Minnesota River, he wondered, or was he bound for the Red River of the North, which flowed from the upper end of the lake to Hudson Bay?

Presently Bending Willow returned to her tepee which stood on a point of high ground overlooking the river. From his lodge Slow Dog could see her slender form as she busied herself preparing food. Wild thoughts filled his mind. Some dark night it might be possible to seize her, place her in his canoe and glide down the river. He pictured her in the frail craft as he swiftly paddled downstream, past the tepees of the Warpeton Sioux. He knew every twist and turn of the river. At Mankate, meaning "Blue Earth" in his language, it turned sharply to the north and east.

Bending Willow should see Mendota, "the meeting of the waters," for there the beautiful Minnesota completed its long journey of four hundred miles and mingled its "sky-tinted waters" with those of the Mich-e-see-be, "Father of Running Waters."

Not there, however, would he beach his canoe. He would go further; past the high white cliffs along the sh.o.r.e to Kaposia, and down the Mich-e-see-be, upon whose western bank dwelt the Medawakantens. Then up the Canon River to its head waters where stood the villages of the Wahpekutes, the fourth tribe of the Minnesota Sioux. There he would dwell with Bending Willow, the Fawn of the Dakotas, the most beautiful woman of the Sioux nation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM HIS LODGE SLOW DOG COULD SEE HER SLENDER FORM AS SHE BUSIED HERSELF PREPARING FOOD.]

CHAPTER V

HAWK EYE'S OFFERING

Hawk Eye and Raven Wing pointed their canoes to the middle of the river and bent to their paddles. In spite of its many twists and turns and the menace of fallen trees floating in the channel, they made good progress.