III

The Bat Devises Mischief Among the Yellow-Eyes


White Otter the boy had been superseded by the man with the upright
eagle-feather, whom people now spoke of as Ho-to-kee-mat-sin, the Bat.
The young women of the Chis-chis-chash threw approving glances after the
Bat as he strode proudly about the camp. He was possessed of all
desirable things conceivable to the red mind. Nothing that ever bestrode
a horse was more exquisitely supple than the well-laid form of this
young Indian man; his fame as a hunter was great, but the taking of the
Absaroke scalp was transcendent. Still, it was not possible to realize
any matrimonial hopes which he was led to entertain, for his four ponies
would buy no girl fit for him. The captured war-pony, too, was one of
these, and not to be transferred for any woman.

The Bat had conjured with himself and conceived the plan of a trip to
the far south--to the land of many horses--but the time was not yet.

As the year drew on, the Chis-chis-chash moved to the west--to the great
fall buffalo-hunt--to the mountains where they could gather fresh
tepee-poles, and with the hope of trade with the wandering trapper
bands. To be sure, the Bat had no skins of ponies to barter with them,
but good fortune is believed to stand in the path of every young man,
somewhere, some time, as he wanders on to meet it. Delayed ambition did
not sour the days for the Indian. He knew that the ponies and the women