-love scars from
my Brother Bulls."

"You'll have worse than Bull scars if you don't wake up,"
answered A'tim; "can't you hear something?"

Shag tipped his massive head sideways with drowsy inquiry, the
heavy lids opening in unwilling laziness. A muffled, palpitating
beat was in the sulky morning air; it was like the monotonous
thump of a war drum over on the Reserve.

"What is it?" queried the Bull, raising his head with full-aged
dignity.

"Eagle Shoe's pinto is pounding the trail; the Run is on,"
answered A'tim.

Shag heaved his huge body to his knees wearily, struggled to his
feet with stiff-limbed action, and shook his gaunt sides.

"You needn't do that," sneered A'tim; "not much grass sticks to
your coat now."

"No, it's only force of habit," grunted Shag. "And to think of
the time when my beautiful hair was the envy of the whole range;
for I was a Silk-Coat, you know--a rare thing in Bulls, to be
sure. But I'm not that now; when I look in the lake waters and
see only this miserable ruff about my neck, and scant tuft on my
tail, I feel sad--feel ashamed. The tongue of the lake tells me
all that, Brother, so say no more about it."

"Wait you here, Shag," commanded A'tim; "I will go up on a Butte
and see the method of these hunters; my eyes are younger than
yours, Herd Leader."

When the Dog-Wolf returned he said: "Eagle Shoe is riding far to
the South; let us follow in the river flat and see this Run, for
it will be a mighty Kill. O-o-o-h! but I am empty--famished!"

"Always of blood," muttered the Bull to himself--"always of blood
and meat eating; Wolf and Dog; Dog-Wolf and Man--always full of
the blood thought and the desire for a Kill."

They could hear the thud of pony hoofs on the dry prairie's
hollow drum as they traveled, winding in and out the tangle of
willow bushes that followed the river. Then the hoof beats died
away, and A'tim said: "Now he has circled to the West--that means
something; let us go up and see."

They stole up the old river bank to the brow of the uplands. A
mile off they could see Eagle Shoe standing beside his cayuse. As
they watched, the Blood Indian stooped, caught up a handful of
black earth-dust and threw it high in air. That was sign talk,
and told his comrades who were hiding on the prairie that he saw
many Buffalo--Buffalo many as the grains of sand cast to the
wind.

Then he trailed his blanket behind him as he walked beside his
ewe-necked pinto, and two Ind