t last to the pony-herds, where the Bat found his little
brother with his bunch of ponies. Taking the cherished war-pony and two
others, he mounted his new woman on one, while he led the other beside
his own. They galloped to the hills. Looking back over the intervening
miles of plain, their sharp eyes could see people running about like
ants, in great perplexity and excitement. Papin had discovered his woes,
and the two lovers laughed loud and long. He had made his slaves lay
violent hands on the Bat and he had lashed the girl, Seet-se-be-a
(Mid-day Sun), with a pony whip, but he had lost his woman.

Much as the Bat yearned to steep his hands in the gore of Papin, yet
the exigencies of the girl's escape made it impossible now, as he feared
pursuit. On the mountain-ridge they stopped, watching for the pursuing
party from the Fort, but the Cheyennes swarmed around and evidently
Papin was perturbed.

[Illustration: 09 The ceremony of the Fastest Horse]

So they watched and talked, and fondled each other, the fierce Cheyenne
boy and Minataree girl--for she proved to be of that tribe--and they
were married by the ancient rites of the ceremony of the Fastest Horse.

Shortly the tribe moved away to its wintering-grounds, the young couple
following after. The Bat lacked the inclination to stop long enough to
murder Papin; he deferred that to the gray future, when the "Mid-day
Sun" did not warm him so.

As they entered the lodges, they were greeted with answering yells, and
the sickening gossip of his misadventure at Laramie was forgotten when
they saw his willing captive. The fierce old women swarmed around,
yelling at Seet-se-be-a in no complimentary way, but the fury of
possible mothers-in-law stopped without the sweep of the Bat's elk-horn
pony whip.

Before many days there was a new tepee among the "Red Lodges," and every
morning Seet-se-be-a set a lance and shield up beside the door, so that
people should know by the devices that the Bat lived there.

V. "The Kites and the Crows"

The Bat had passed the boy stage. He was a Chis-chis-chash warrior now,
of agile body and eager mind. No man's medicine looked more sharply
after his physical form and shadow-self than did the Bat's; no young man
was quicker in the surround; no war-pony could scrabble to the lariat
ahead of his in the races. He had borne more bravely in the sun-dance
than all others, and those who had done the ceremony of "smoking his
shield" ha