d on the preceding night also told the war-prophet
that the Chis-chis-chash had sat too long in their lodges, which was the
reason why he had come to urge activity.

Accordingly--without having gone near the boiled meat--the Fire Eater
took the war-pipe around the Red Lodges and twenty young men gladly
smoked it. In council of the secret clan the war-prophet and the
sub-chief voiced for war. The old chiefs and the wise men grown stiff
from riding and conservative toward a useless waste of young warriors,
blinked their beady eyes in protest but they did not imperil their
popularity by advice to the contrary. The young men's blood-thirst and
desire for distinction could not be curbed. So the war-prophet repaired
to his secret lodge to make the mystery, while the warriors fasted
until it was done. Everything about the expedition had been faithfully
attended to; all the divinities had been duly consulted; the council
had legitimatized it; the Fire Eater had been appointed leader; the
war-prophet had the sacred protection forthcoming, and no band had
lately gone forth from the village with so many assurances of success.

For many days the little streak of ponies wound over the rolling brown
land toward the north. Each man rode a swift horse and led another
alongside. Far ahead ranged the cautious spies; no sailing hawk, no
wailing coyote, no blade of grass did anything which was not reasoned
out by mind or noted by their watchful eyes.

The Absaroke were the friends of the Yellow-Eyes who had a little fort
at the mouth of the Muscleshell, where they gave their guns and gauds
in great quantities. The Chis-chis-chash despised the men who wore hats.
They barely tolerated and half protected their own traders. Nothing
seemed so desirable as to despoil the Absaroke traders. They had often
spied on the fort but always found the protecting Absaroke too numerous.
The scouts of the Fire Eater, however, found immense trace of their
enemy's main camp as it moved up the valley of the Yellow-stone. They
knew that the Absaroke had finished their yellow-grass trading and
had gone to hunt the buffalo. They hoped to find the little fort
unprotected. Accordingly they sped on toward that point, which upon
arrival they found sitting innocently alone in the grand landscape. Not
a tepee was to be seen.

Having carefully reconnoitered and considered the place, they left their
horses in a dry washout and crawled toward it through the sage brush.