hues--some red, and others half white or red across the face, while the
ponies came in for streaks and daubs, grotesque as tropic birds.

So over the hill rode the line of naked men, their ponies dancing with
excitement, while ahead of them a half-breed man skimmed along bearing a
small bush over his head. The cavalcade of the Yellow-Eyes had halted in
a compact mass, awaiting the oncoming Indians. They had dismounted and
gone out on the sides away from the carts, where they squatted quietly
in the grass. This was what the Yellow-Eyes always did in war, unlike
Indians, who diffused themselves on their speeding ponies, sailing like
hawks.

A warrior of the Yellow-Eyes came to meet them, waving a white cloth
from his gun-barrel after the manner of his people, and the two
peace-bearers shook hands. Breaking into a run, the red line swept on,
their ponies' legs beating the ground in a vibratory whirl, their plumes
swishing back in a rush of air, and with yelps which made the white men
draw their guns into a menacing position.

At a motion of the chief's arm, the line stopped. The Yellow-Eyed men
rose slowly from the grass and rested on their long rifles, while their
chief came forward.

For a long time the two head men sat on their ponies in front of the
horsemen, speaking together with their hands. Not a sound was to be
heard but the occasional stamp of a pony's hoof on the hard ground. The
beady eyes of the Chis-chis-chash beamed malevolently on the white
chief--the blood-thirst, the warrior's itch, was upon them.

After an understanding had been arrived at, the Indian war-chief turned