The scout terminated his interview, promising to leave food enough for the old Indian and child until he could come again. He must first go to the fort, but might soon return and would visit the daughter of the moon. Next morning with Hickok the scout set out and soon returned each with an antelope. These were left to supply the old man and child until they came back. They also left tea and tobacco. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE QUEEN OE THE STARS. When Lieutenant Avery went down in the midst of the yelling horde a brave leaped from his pony and seized the hair of the young soldier, while another clutched the long tresses of the unconscious woman. But the eager ones were halted by an elder chief. Both prisoners must be taken to the Indian village, he told them, to trade for prisoners held by the pony soldiers. If the young officer was dead, he was brave, and the white men would give a live war prisoner for the body, but it must not be mutilated. The lieutenant was not dead, and before the party had traversed many miles he was raving in delirium. The bride remained blissfully unconscious. As the sun hung low in the western sky it shone upon the Indian party and its prisoners passing near the sacred mountain, and they paused to leave the first antelope shot during the trip to insure good luck for the remainder. A voice from the top of the rock in their own tongue asked the Indians concerning their prisoners. They told her of the long chase and capture, after a fight in which ten braves had been killed and several horses. They paid a tribute to the valor of the prisoner and the beauty of the woman. The queen of the stars then pointed to the setting sun, which was going down blood red, and said: “The god of day blushes for the Cheyennes who make war on women.” She sang beautifully in an unknown tongue to them, and then ordered them to ride on and leave the prisoners beside the antelope. The red warriors obeyed without demur and rode on sadly, bearing their dead, and with no trophy of the chase. The bride had recovered and was moaning over her delirious and apparently dying husband. He was shot and cut in many places, while she had escaped without a scratch. Suddenly a rock near her slid aside, and two women came forth--the fair being who had addressed the war party, and an elderly one. They at once set about removing the wounded man to the interior of the mountain. They also dragged the antelope within, and the surprised Mrs. Dorothy Avery found herself behind the wall of solid rock, and in the most marvelous place she had ever seen or ever expected to see. The first care of the three women was to dress the numerous wounds of the lieutenant. All night long three pairs of tender hands worked over him, and when the sun arose it lighted the interior of the mountain, and reflected on the tepee where the young soldier was sleeping quietly.