and the war party has started,--hundreds and hundreds of warriors. They are
strung out over the prairie as far as you can see.

When they got to the Missouri River, the poor man showed them where the
lodge in which they had tortured him had stood. He took them to see the
tree, where he had been bound. The black paint was still on it.

From here, they went slowly. Some young men were sent far ahead to
scout. The second day, they came back to the main body, and said they had
found a camping place just deserted, and that there the trail forked. The
poor man then went ahead, and at the forks he found a willow twig stuck in
the ground, pointing to the left hand trail. When the others came up, he
said to them: "Take care of my horse now, and travel slowly. I will go
ahead on foot and find the camp. It must be close. I will go and see that
old woman, and find out how things are."

Some men did not want him to do this; they said that the old woman might
tell about him, and then they could not surprise the camp.

"No," replied the man. "It will not be so. That old woman is almost the
same as my mother. I know she will help us."

He went ahead carefully, and near sunset saw the camp. When it was dark,
he crept near it and entered the old woman's lodge. She had placed it
behind, and a little way off from, the others. When he went in the old
woman was asleep, but the fire was still burning a little. He touched her,
and she jumped up and started to scream; but he put his hand on her mouth,
and when she saw who it was she laughed and kissed him. "The Piegans have
come," he told her. "We are going to have revenge on this camp to-night. Is
my wife here?"