uarely against the incredible
assumption that God must love them. He did not in the least mean to be
irreverent, but when he watched those painted bucks his opinion of God
changed slightly. He decided that he himself was neither pure nor full
of faith, and that he would not pray just yet. He would let God go ahead
and do as He pleased about it; except that Buddy would never let those
Indians get him alive, no matter what God expected.

Hides-the-face walked over toward the dugout. Buddy crooked his left arm
and laid the gun barrel across it to get a "dead rest" and leave nothing
to chance. Hides-the-face stared at the dugout, moved to one side--and
the muzzle of the gun followed, keeping its aim directly at the left
edge of his breastbone as outlined with the red paint. Hides-the-face
craned, stepped into the path down the bank and passed out of range.
Buddy gritted his teeth malevolently and waited, his ears strained
to catch and interpret the meaning of every soft sound made by
Hides-the-face's moccasins.

Hides-the-face cautiously pushed open the door of the cellar and looked
in, standing for interminable minutes, as is the leisurely way of
Indians when there is no great need of haste. Ruddy cautiously lowered
his face and peered down like a mouse from the thatch, but he could not
handily bring his gun to bear upon Hides-the-face, who presently turned
back and went up the path, his shoulder-muscles moving snakishly under
his brown skin as he climbed the bank.

Hides-the-face returned to the others and announced that there was a
place where they could camp. Buddy could not hear all that he said, and
Hides-the-face had his back turned so that not all of his signs were
intelligible; but he gathered that these particular Indians had chosen
or had been ordered to wait here for three suns, and that the cellar
appealed to Hides-the-face as a shelter in case it stormed.

Buddy did not know whether to rejoice at the news or to mourn. They
would not destroy the dugout, so he need not shoot himself, which was of
course a relief. Still, three suns meant three days and nights, and the
prospect of lying there on his stomach, afraid to move for that length
of time, almost amounted to the same thing in the end. He did not
believe that he could hold out that long, though of course he would try
pretty hard.

All that day Buddy lay watching through the crack, determined to take
any chance that came his way. None came. The Indians