following after. The Bat lacked the inclination to stop long enough to
murder Papin; he deferred that to the gray future, when the "Mid-day
Sun" did not warm him so.

As they entered the lodges, they were greeted with answering yells, and
the sickening gossip of his misadventure at Laramie was forgotten when
they saw his willing captive. The fierce old women swarmed around,
yelling at Seet-se-be-a in no complimentary way, but the fury of
possible mothers-in-law stopped without the sweep of the Bat's elk-horn
pony whip.

Before many days there was a new tepee among the "Red Lodges," and every
morning Seet-se-be-a set a lance and shield up beside the door, so that
people should know by the devices that the Bat lived there.




V

"The Kites and the Crows"


The Bat had passed the boy stage. He was a Chis-chis-chash warrior now,
of agile body and eager mind. No man's medicine looked more sharply
after his physical form and shadow-self than did the Bat's; no young man
was quicker in the surround; no war-pony could scrabble to the lariat
ahead of his in the races. He had borne more bravely in the sun-dance
than all others, and those who had done the ceremony of "smoking his
shield" had heard the thick bull's-hide promise that no arrow or bullet