When he had located the sound he moved toward the hiding boys but stopped at the nearest tepee. The crooning grew to a lamentation. Then other tepees showed signs of life, and in a few moments bucks, squaws and papooses were running hither and thither in a bewildering way. But the boys remained silent, for there was no sign of a movement of camp and not an indication that there was an outside alarm. Then what could it be? What was all this fuss about? The lamentations became louder and louder and the excitement apparently greater. Finally a number of squaws who had gone to the creek bottom appeared in the center of the little camp. They carried bundles of green willows, dozens of large hard-head boulders and rawhide receptacles filled with water; also a bundle of dry faggots. After the stones had been piled in a neat heap a fire was built upon them which was allowed to burn briskly for half an hour. Then the coals and ashes were brushed off and a tent-like covering put over a quickly woven basket-like structure that had been built over the stones. Then the water was dashed upon the stones and the steam began to ascend. Presently out from a tepee came a squaw with a bundle which she gently shoved under the elkskin covered cauldron of steam. "Say," said one of the boys, "are you on?" "Sure enough," the other whispered, "they are giving that kid a Turkish bath." And that's what they were doing; but it wasn't Turkish-just Injun. Returning to camp the boys proceeded to slip into their blankets quietly, say nothing about what they had seen, and go to sleep. They believed the straggling band of Arapahoes were not on the war-path and had work for the "medicine-man"--the big buck they first saw come out of his tepee. You have no idea how cautiously the boys went about getting the blankets off the wagon so as not to disturb the boss, a man they feared. So they moved noiselessly. One threw his roll of blankets from the top of the trailer and the other caught the bundle and proceeded to flatten it out into a comfortable bed when he heard a familiar noise, and forgetting that they were to be silent, the youth on the ground yelled: "Look out--a rattler!" It woke up the whole camp. The snake had occupied the blankets from four a. m., at least, until this time--midnight. Perhaps he had slept with the boy until four a. m.; I think he did; anyway, he had rolled him up and put him where found. CHAPTER VI BELATED GRACE FOR A CHRISTMAS DINNER.