Standing Bull touched Crawford’s shirt, beneath which hung the Star of Dreams. “My brother’s manitou is strong. It will protect him.” Crawford’s lips twitched ironically. Frontin broke into a gay laugh of mirth. “Well touched, cap’n! Those buccaneers of Joppa said the same thing when they pitched Jonah overboard, eh? Well, they were right; and I am not so sure but that the chief here is also right!” Crawford ignored this comment, and also disdained to argue with the Dacotah. These, obviously, were determined to abandon the white men and flee. Since one was heading south to raise a war-party, the danger must be pressing indeed. Their resolve angered him, yet he was helpless before it. “Very well, I’ll trust to the star,” he said. “How shall we find this lake of many stars, since we do not know this country at all? According to this diagram, it lies northwest of us; but there are no trails in the wilderness.” “Your medicine is very strong, it will whisper in your ear,” said the chief sententiously. “It will confuse the Stone Men and throw them off your trail. It will guide you----” Crawford lost his temper at this. “You are not warriors, but women; may the foul fiend fly away with you! Go, and the sooner the better.” Somewhat to his consternation, Standing Bull and the other two redskins instantly took him at his word; they were very close to panic. The three caught up their packs, pulled their snowshoes from the snow, and in two minutes had melted away into the darkness. Frontin, slow to comprehend that the Dacotah were actually departing, stared after them, then burst into a storm of bitter oaths. “Why, the scurvy rogues mean to follow along the ice of that little river below us--leaving the enemy to swoop down on our trail in the snow! Unless we go the same way.” Crawford nodded. The Dacotah, frightened, were leaving the whites as a scalp-gift to the Stone Men; the danger, then, was imminent. He stared with sombre eyes over his pipe into the tiny fire-glow, then began to study that diagram in the snow. “At least, they got us away from Maclish and his men,” he said. “See, now! We must strike to the northwest until we reach hills; that’s clear enough. This frozen river below us comes from the northwest or runs that way--sink me if I can tell which. We must take to the ice.” “And trail the Dacotah?” “No; they’ll cover their trail. Undoubtedly Maclish tricked us smoothly. When Standing Bull laid that belt over the knees of the dead Assiniboine chief, he declared war. Crafty Maclish will make the most of that, be sure! If he can persuade them to capture the Star Woman and bring the Dacotah to terms, he may yet win his game and be a second Kelsey. Well, I wish we were out of this accursed ice and snow! Winter lasts forever in this land.” “We’ll be out of it when the storm breaks----” “Unless the storm brings snow. Sly fellows, those Dacotahs! If snow comes, their tracks are covered, while we are lost. Suppose we dine.”