now the heavy piece on the bow of the great
barge spoke in no uncertain terms so that its echoes ran back along
the river shores. No such boat, no such gun as this, had ever been
seen in that country before.

"Tell them to make a council, Dorion," said Lewis. "Take this
officer's coat to their head man. Tell him that the Great Father sends
it to him. Give him this hat with lace on it. Tell him that when we
are ready we may come to their council to meet their chiefs. Say that
only their real chiefs must come, for we will not treat with any but
their head men. If they wish to see us soon, let them come to our
village here."

"You are chiefs!" said Dorion. "Have I not seen it? I will tell them
so."

But Dorion had been gone but a short time when he came hurrying back
from the Indian village.

"The runners say plenty buffalo close by," he reported. "The chief,
she'll call the people to hunt the buffalo."

William Clark turned to his companion.

"You hear that, Merne?" said he. "Why should we not go also?"

"Agreed!" said Meriwether Lewis. "But stay, I have a thought. We will
go as they go and hunt as they do. To impress an Indian, beat him at
his own game. You and I must ride this day, Will!"

"Yes, and without saddles, too! Very well, I learned that of my
brother, who learned it of the Indians themselves. And I know you and
I both can shoot the bow as well as most Indians--that was part of our
early education. I might better have been in school sometimes, when I
was learning the bow."

"Dorion," said Lewis to the interpreter, "go back to the village and
tell their chief to send two bows with plenty of arrows. Tell them
that we scorn to waste any powder on so small a game as the buffalo.
On ahead are animals each one of which is as big as twenty buffalo--we
keep our great gun for those. As for buffalo, we kill them as the
Indians do, with the bow and with the spear. We shall want the
stiffest bows, with sinewed backs. Our arms are very strong."

Swift and wide spread the word among the Sioux that the white chiefs
would run the buffalo with their own warriors. Exclamations of
amusement, surprise, satisfaction, were heard. The white men should
see how the Sioux could ride. But Weucha, the head man, sent a
messenger with two bows and plenty of arrows--short, keen-pointed
arrows, suitable for the buffalo hunt, when driven by the stiff bows
of the Sioux.

"Strip, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "If we ride as savage