“Our lucky star must’ve been shinin’,” said Bill Brown thankfully, as they turned and left the spot, “to bring us all through this bloody fightin’ ’thout so much as a scratch.” “But what of Bright Star?” asked Ben suddenly. A loud whoop, full of triumph, rang out over wood and water. The three looked up eagerly, to see the young Pottawattomee skipping nimbly toward them over the stepping-stones. As he drew nearer, they noticed a fresh scalp, dangling from his belt. But no questions were asked. They fully understood. CHAPTER 21 War-Trail’s End Though the slippery Black Hawk escaped from the pale-face trap at Wisconsin Heights, that hard-fought battle really marked the end of the Sac uprising. After fording the broad Wisconsin River, the desperate Sac band, now destitute of food and ammunition, split into three smaller groups. One band floated down the river on crudely improvised rafts, and was speedily taken. Another party fled northward to an almost inaccessible canyon, known to the Indians as Neeh-ah-ke-coonah-er-ah, “where the rocks strike together.” Here they were tracked down and either killed or captured by the vengeful whites. The third, and larger, band, under Black Hawk himself, pushed westward through a rugged and forbidding wilderness, striving for the distant Mississippi,--beyond which they hoped for safety. Pursuit of this band was given over to the forces of General Atkinson (White Beaver), who had now arrived on the scene, too late to take part in the battle of the heights. Although the difficulties of travel were great, swamps and turbulent streams being frequently encountered among the steep, thickly-wooded hills, these fresh troops pressed on feverishly. They found Black Hawk’s pathway strewn with the bodies of dead Sacs, who had died of wounds and starvation, and there were constant evidences that the fleeing savages were eating the bark of trees and the sparse flesh of their fagged-out ponies to sustain life. Finally, on the first of August, the Hawk and his sadly-depleted and almost starving band reached the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe River, one of its smallest eastern tributaries. Here the redskins tried to cross, using a few canoes and rude rafts. Some were killed by canister-shot from an army gunboat, “The Warrior,” which happened to be on the spot. Others, including Black Hawk himself, surrendered to the White Beaver’s soldiers, now arriving after their headlong pursuit. Still other Sacs, who managed to cross the great river, were largely taken captive or scalped by their hereditary enemies, the fierce Sioux tribesmen. Thus, out of nearly one thousand Sacs whom the Hawk had led into the Illinois country in April, barely two hundred survived to return to the Ioway Territory that they had left on their ill-fated foray.