Part 4 (2/2)
”That is good!” Quannah's eyes brightened.
Turning to the Medicine Man he spoke in a low voice, so that neither Star nor Running Deer was able to hear what he said. The other Comanches began making preparations for food, so Running Deer, with Star at her side, moved slowly away, cropping the thick, tender gra.s.s as they talked together.
”Mother, do you think we will be sent to-night?” Star asked suddenly.
”Maybe,” she answered. ”I am the swiftest pony of the herd, and you have proved your speed and strength to-day. It would be a great honour if both of us were sent. But now stop talking. Eat, that you may rest, for no one can tell when we may be needed, nor how long and hard the trail before we can graze and rest again.”
Star obeyed. After he had eaten his fill of juicy gra.s.s he wandered with his mother to a stream where they thrust their noses into the clear, cool water and drank all they wished. Then the two of them found a spot which they pawed to make more soft, and doubling their front knees they sank slowly to the ground and soon lay sleeping side by side.
Several hours had pa.s.sed when Star wakened suddenly at a whisper from his mother, whose lips touched one of his ears. It was quite dark, but the stars gleamed overhead. When the little spots of light flickered in the sky Star knew that it was from the hoofs of ponies in the Happy Hunting Grounds just as the Comanche ponies made sparks of fire when rocks were tossed together violently by the ponies' flying hoofs.
”Listen!” whispered Running Deer. ”The men are picking the ponies for to-night's work!”
The colt's body quivered with excitement, his lips twitched and his ears c.o.c.ked sharply, while his eyes peered into the darkness where he could hear the soft tread of moccasined feet that were coming nearer and nearer to him and his mother. He wanted to leap up and call out to the warriors that he was awake and ready, but a nudge from his mother made him lie down quietly and wait.
In a few seconds an indistinct figure stood beside him. A hand touched his forelock. Star rose quickly to his feet as a rawhide noose slipped about his neck. He felt his mother's nose against his own, but the nip she gave him this time was not an angry one. It told him as plainly as she could speak how proud she was that her son had been picked out for the work.
”Do your best,” he heard her say. ”Remember, you are my colt. Your honour is my honour. If you fail it is my disgrace as well as yours!”
Then he was led away, leaving his mother watching him as he disappeared in the darkness of night. She knew that the quick little bite he had given her was a promise that he would not forget all she had taught him.
The man whom Star followed stopped where Quannah and all the warriors stood with two little Comanche boys, who were looking up at the chief and listening carefully to every word he was speaking to them. Star was close enough to hear what was said.
”Ride swiftly,” Quannah commanded. ”Make no noise. When you are near the white men's camp lie closely and hold your hands tightly across your ponies' noses to keep them from calling out to the white men's ponies and warning them of danger.”
”We will do as you say,” the boys promised st.u.r.dily.
”Good!” the chief answered. ”Leave your ponies while you crawl cautiously to the rope that holds the white men's ponies. Cut the rope and leap on the nearest pony, then shout loudly and beat the ponies with the pieces of buffalo hide you carry. That will frighten them so they will run away. Your own ponies will follow. You must drive the white men's ponies toward the place where we will be waiting to help you. Thus we will capture the white men's ponies, so the men cannot follow us to our women and children.”
”We understand,” replied the boys in one voice, while the Indians watched them and whispered to one another, ”These children will be great warriors when they are full-grown men!”
Once again Quannah spoke to the boys. ”The honour of the Quahada Comanches is in your hands. Guard it with your lives. If you are captured, let no man know why you were sent, nor where we are waiting.
Do not whisper it even between your two selves, for the wind might steal your words and carry them to the white men's ears.”
Then the old Medicine Man stepped before the two children, and his thin arms and trembling hands were extended over their heads. The boys knelt down. Around them like shadows in the faint starlight stood all the Quahada Comanche warriors, and their chief watched the two slender lads, his eyes full of pride.
”Great Spirit, hear the cry of your children. Help us save the game and the gra.s.s that we may live in peace and happiness in the land you gave to our fathers long ago. Send their spirits from the Happy Hunting Grounds this night that they may travel beside these children and give them courage and cunning to save the Comanche people. We are weak, we are few, and the white men are many and strong. We must go out to fight and we ask the Great Spirit to help us, for with the Great Spirit and the spirits of our forefathers we shall win over all our foes!”
In the silence that followed the Medicine Man's blessing, the boys rose to their feet. Then Star s.h.i.+vered with excitement as one of the boys grasped the mane that fell thickly on the pony's neck. With a quick, light bound the lad vaulted to Star's bare back. Beside them the other boy was astride a pony named Hawk.
Silently the circle of warriors parted so that there was a s.p.a.ce. The young riders leaned down on the necks of the ponies and darted, side by side, through the pathway of Comanches, then on through darkness that wrapped the prairie like a heavy black cloak.
Chapter VIII
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