Two hours pa.s.sed without a shot being fired. The sun had grown hot, the heat-cats began to run up the south-facing hill, and Bill and Tim found this tedious waiting and watching the hardest kind of work they had ever done. Barker and Tatanka did not seem to mind it. They kept their eyes on the enemy but chatted and joked quietly in the most unconcerned manner, as if being besieged by Indians were a most ordinary thing to them.

"I don't think they are a bit afraid," said Bill.

"I'm not afraid," Tim answered, "as long as the Indians don't come into our bush. But I'm hungry and awfully thirsty."

"I think I can find water," said Bill. "I'm awfully thirsty, too. You watch my Indian a little while."

In half an hour Bill came back. "Tim," he reported, with joy, "go to the big poplar near the horses. I've dug a well there with my hands and knife. The water isn't very good, but it will give you a drink."

Tim went and told the men about Bill's well, and both took turns to get a drink.

"Oh!" remarked Tatanka, with a grin, "Bill has found good water. He is a good Indian soldier."

A little later, Tatanka crept rapidly forward to an outlying willow-bush where he quietly rose on his knees and fired. The bragging Indian jumped out of the gra.s.s and tried to run away, but he staggered and fell.

Then the Indian on the white horse came on a gallop to carry off the wounded man, but Tatanka fired again and the white horse fell dead, but the dismounted rider helped the wounded man to get out of range, before Tatanka could load and fire again.

While this had been going on, the two other mounted Indians had come racing along as if they would run straight into the copse, and both Tim and Barker fired at them. The trapper's mark reared and plunged for the open prairie, and the other rider also threw his pony around, for Tim's bullet had gone singing close over his head. When they had run some hundred yards, both Indians turned and fired, but as the defenders had kept well under cover, the b.a.l.l.s flew wild among the thick poplars.

Indian warriors have seldom held out long against men who made a brave stand. When the Sioux saw that they were getting the worse of the fight, they all withdrew to the wagon and started westward.

Tatanka now ran out into the open, waved his blanket and shouted, "You are squaws. You are gophers. Run to your holes."

Then turning to Barker, he said, "Come, brother, we scare them."

Before the boys knew what Tatanka meant, the two men were racing after the Indians as fast as the horses could go.

When the Indians saw them coming, they whipped their horses into a gallop and disappeared over a rise on the prairie.

Barker and Tatanka did not follow their routed enemies over the rise, but returned at once to their poplar fort.

After the four defenders had taken a drink out of Bill's well, they all sat down in the shade on the edge of the thicket where the poplar leaves rustled pleasantly in the summer breeze.

"Now, friends," the trapper said, "it is time for a little lunch. Here is a piece of cornbread left over from my breakfast. It isn't much, but we all get a bite. In the meantime, keep your eyes on the prairie and look out for Indian heads."

"I think we should stay here until dark," Tatanka suggested, "and then start for Shakopee or Fort Snelling. Indians do not fight during the night. The sky is going to be clear and we can travel by the stars. It is very dangerous to travel in daylight."

"You are right, my friend," the trapper replied, "but I am almost afraid to stay here. Our enemies may come back with more men to drive us out, or larger bodies of Indians may accidentally find us. Our horses have no water and we cannot leave the thicket if we are surrounded. I think we should find a better place, even if it is dangerous to travel by daylight."

CHAPTER V-THROUGH A DESERTED LAND

Before they left their hiding-place, Tatanka tied some small poplar twigs to his head and climbed the highest tree in the grove.

"I can see not a man nor horse," he reported. "Our enemies have left.

Even if the men were hiding in the gra.s.s, I would be able to see their wagon and horses."

"The nearest places of safety are Fort Ridgely and New Ulm," declared the trapper. "Should we not try to reach one or the other?"

"They are not safe now," objected Tatanka, after a brief silence. "I have heard the young warriors brag that a thousand of them could easily rush both of these places. We could surely not get into either place on horseback. We might crawl into them at night. If you try to go there on horseback, I shall not go with you."

"Perhaps you are right," granted the trapper. "I do not wish to lose my two fine horses. Let us try to reach the small lake and timber north of here. We can water our horses there and the patch of timber is large enough so that a small party can not surround us. And if the worst should happen, we can abandon our horses and slip away on foot after dark."

When they were ready to move, Bill found little Tim hunting about anxiously through the brush.

"I can't find the c.o.o.n," he cried. "He was there before we sat down to eat our cornbread, but now he has chewed off the string I tied him with and he is gone."

The men laughed, but together with Bill they began to beat the brush and the weeds for the lost racc.o.o.n.

"Little gray Meetcha will be hard to find," commented Tatanka. "He may have gone back to the woods near the river. His kind does not love the prairie like Hoka, the badger, who digs the striped gophers out of their holes."

After some more searching Bill called out:

"Oh, come here, Tim. Here's your fool c.o.o.n. He's washing a frog in my well."

By the time Tim arrived, Meetcha had not only washed but also eaten his frog.

"You little fool," Tim cried, as he gently boxed Meetcha's ears, "the Sioux will cut off your tail and boil you in the pot if you run away from us. Haven't you heard that war has begun?"

Meetcha snarled and struck at Tim with his short fore-paws, but Tim placed his pet in front of him on the saddle and men and boys started slowly for the small lake.

However, before they entered the woods, they halted the horses in an isolated thicket and Tatanka alone crept slowly through the gra.s.s and tall weeds into the woods.

"Where is he?" asked Bill, when Tatanka had gone a few rods. "I can't even see the gra.s.s move, except by the little puffs of wind."

"Of course you can't." Barker laughed. "Tatanka would not be a good scout if he could not vanish in the tall gra.s.s."

Black Buffalo was gone a long time and Bill and Tim began to think that he would not come back or that he had been killed. But the trapper only smiled and said: "You boys don't know what patience is. A good scout or a good hunter must be able to wait a long time, sometimes a whole day."

When Tatanka did return he came into the thicket from the other side and was standing before them without either of the boys having seen him approach.

"Where did he come from?" Tim asked, his big blue eyes showing his surprise, but the trapper only smiled and said, "He's our scout, lads."

The scout reported that he had gone carefully through the whole patch of timber, and that neither in the timber nor on the lake sh.o.r.e had he seen any fresh sign of Indians or horses. "But I did see fresh deer sign," he concluded. "A buck lives in those woods, but I did not see him."

Feeling sure now that they would not fall into an ambush, the four friends rode into the woods to find a suitable spot, where they might conceal themselves till nightfall.

They first watered their horses, taking care to conceal them behind some overhanging linden branches, so that they might not be seen from the other side of the lake. Both the trapper and Tatanka agreed that it was not at all likely that any Indians would be in hiding on the sh.o.r.e of this small lake.

"They are scattered in all directions, killing people and making booty,"

Barker gave as his opinion. "But it would not surprise me if toward evening some of those marauding parties would come along to stop here for the night."

The afternoon furnished again a great trial of patience for the boys.

For a while, the care of their horses and catching frogs for Meetcha occupied them. Then they picked a few choke-cherries, but these did not allay their growing hunger, and the trapper would not let them pick the laden bushes on the outside of the timber.