He shut his eyes, threw himself at once to the ground. The earth came up and hit him in the face as hard as a fist in the jaw. Stunned for a moment, he sucked air into his chest and let it out slowly. He lay perfectly still. His ear felt as if someone had laid a burning torch on it. "Got the sonofabitch," came Eli Greenglove's flat voice from only a short distance away. But he was still alive. And no one was shooting at him. His body went limp with relief. He could not believe that he was still alive and conscious. _Maybe I am dead. Maybe my spirit will stand up in a moment and start walking west._ Greenglove was supposed to be the best shot in Smith County. Could he really mistakenly think he hit White Bear square in the head? His eyes were better than that. White Bear heard distant shots. _Earthmaker, let Three Horses live!_ If Three Horses had not run when he did, White Bear would not be alive now. But White Bear remembered with anguish that he had seen Little Crow die. _Oh, my brother!_ Even though half dead with pain and terror himself, he mourned the brave who had died before his eyes. Blood pounded in White Bear's head. Night was growing steadily deeper. By not moving and by taking only the tiniest breaths he might appear to be dead. He lay with his mutilated right ear uppermost. He felt streams of blood running like lines of ants over his scalp and his cheek. They tickled his neck. To lie perfectly still was agony. White Bear heard Raoul's voice say, "Make sure of him, Eli." "Damn hellfire nation!" Eli came back. "Don't I know when I've put a man under?" "It's dark and you've had a lot of whiskey. Make sure of him." "Pure waste of time," said Greenglove. White Bear heard footsteps rustling through the grass toward him. The effort of keeping himself from moving threatened to tear his muscles from his bones. His heart beat harder as the steps came closer. Surely Greenglove could hear its thudding. But he froze himself and held his breath as the feet stopped beside him. In stillness was his only hope. The pain throbbed in his ear. _He'll see that he just hit my ear, and that will be the end._ Should he jump up and run for it? No, Greenglove would not miss a second time. Let the Bear spirit dim Greenglove's sharp eyes. Let him be deceived into thinking White Bear dead. There was no other way he could escape. He waited for the shot that would smash into his brain. "Right through the skull," Greenglove called out. "Ain't even enough left to scalp him." Amazement flooded through White Bear. That couldn't be what Greenglove saw. Unless he was blind drunk. Or blinded by the Bear. _Or he doesn't want to kill me._ Hadn't he tried to talk Raoul out of shooting the three of them? White Bear remembered Greenglove swinging the rifle at him the day of his father's funeral. If Greenglove hadn't knocked him out, Raoul would have shot him.