' after
that she distributed her fourteen bundles of talk that were left among
all the Sioux so that everybody could tell how glad he felt because the
Raven was twisted and died. An' for a week there was nothing but
happiness an' big talk among the Sioux; an' _Moh-kwa_, the Bear, came
laughing out of his canyon with the wonder of listening to it; while the
Squaw-who-has-dreams now, when her revenge was done, went with
_When-dee-goo_, the Giant, to his teepee and became his squaw. So now
everything was ended save the Story-that-never-ends.'

"When Sioux Sam gets this far," concluded the Old Cattleman, "he says,
'an' my mother's words at the end were: "An' boys who ask too many
questions will die, as did the Raven whose cur'osity was even greater
than his cruelty."'"

CHAPTER V.

The Queerness of Dave Tutt.

"Which these queernesses of Dave's," observed the Old Cattleman, "has
already been harrowin' an' harassin' up the camp for mighty likely
she's two months, when his myster'ous actions one evenin' in the Red
Light brings things to a climax, an' a over-strained public, feelin'
like it can b'ar no more, begins to talk.

"It's plumb easy to remember this Red Light o'casion, for jest prior to
Dave alarmin' us by becomin' melodious, furtive--melody bein' wholly
onnacheral to Dave, that a-way--thar's a callow pin-feather party comes
caperin' in an' takin' Old Man Enright one side, asks can he yootilise
Wolfville as a strategic p'int in a elopement he's goin' to pull off.

"'Which I'm out to elope a whole lot from Tucson,' explains this
pin-feather party to Enright, 'an' I aims to cinch the play. I'm a
mighty cautious sport, an' before ever I hooks up for actooal
freightin' over any trail, I rides her once or twice to locate wood and
water, an' pick out my camps. Said system may seem timorous, but it's
shore safer a heap. So I asks ag'in whether you-all folks has any
objections to me elopin' into Wolfville with my beloved, like I
suggests. I ain't out to spring no bridals on a onprotected outfit,
wherefore I precedes the play with these queries.'

"'But whatever's the call for you to elope at all?' remonstrates
Enright. 'The simple way now would be to round up this lady's paternal
gent, an' get his consent.'

"'Seein' the old gent,' says the pin-feather party, ''speshully when
you lays it smoothly off like that, shore does seem simplicity itse'f.
But if you was to prance out an' try it some, it would be