"That's so. Joe Ballin, who's with them, 's an old pard of mine. We've done many a scout together in '67 and '68. Well, he told me all about it. This command is out after no less a chap than War Wolf. You see the pizen young skunk has been braggin' all over the section how he scalped Rufus Charley and Pesky Bob, them two fellers we buried down by Burntwood Creek. It's got to the General's ears, and now they've come to take him over to Fort Price. They've given out a lie that they're bound down the river on the trail of a Minneconjou who ran off a lot of Government beef last month, but that's just a red herring. As sure as War Wolf comes along, they'll grab him--mind me." Vipan meditatively blew out circles of smoke into the air, without replying. This was a most untoward _contretemps_. He remembered the scalp-dance which he had witnessed; the two scalps--including the red-haired one--which War Wolf had so boastfully brandished during that barbarian orgie, and it flashed across him vividly now that, were the Indian arrested for the deed, the bulk of his clansmen and the Sioux at large would look upon himself as having betrayed their compatriot into the enemy's hand, or would for their own purposes affect to. Here were the troops, and he, Vipan, on good terms and hob-nobbing with their leaders. The capture--if it took place--would be to himself most disastrous. It was characteristic of the man that he lost sight of the grave peril in which he himself would be placed, alone here in the midst of hundreds of exasperated savages. His plans of future enrichment would be utterly broken up, and it was of this he was thinking. Unscrupulous, self-seeking as he was, Vipan had his own code of honour, and he would no more have dreamed of betraying his friend's confidence than of cutting his friend's throat. But had the information reached him through any other channel, it is more than doubtful whether Uncle Sam's cavalry would have effected their capture that day. "You're right, Bill," he said, at length. "There'll be an almighty rumpus if that game's tried on. Why, there are enough reds here to chaw up this command twice over, and they'll do it, too, I'll bet a hat. Why the devil did they send out so few men?" "Well, what d'you say? Hadn't we better git?" "Not this child. You see, if we make tracks, and War Wolf gets grabbed, the reds'll certainly think I gave him away. He's an infernal young skunk, and I'd gladly see him hung; still, it nohow suits my book that he should be just now. So I'll see it out, but if you'd rather be outside it, don't stay. We can rendezvous anywhere you like afterwards." "Oh, well; it's no great matter. I don't care if I stay," answered the scout, with his usual imperturbability. "Here's a big burst of rain coming. We'd better get inside the store, anyhow."