new the day was at hand, and with its first beams she was
safely tucked into one of those round turns left by the river long ago
in changing its bed, now become a little grassy hollow sheltered by
steep banks, and hidden by a fringe of trees. Here she picketed her
pony, and took her own rest. Not until the afternoon shadows were
long did she awake and go forth with determination to seek for the
battlefield and for the Crow encampment.

It was not long before she came upon the bodies of fallen horses and
men. There was Matoska's white charger, with a Sioux arrow in his side,
and she divined the treachery of Red Owl! But he was dead, and his death
had atoned for the crime. The body of her lover was nowhere to be found;
yet how should they have taken the bravest of the Sioux a captive?

"If he had but one arrow left, he would stand and fight! If his
bow-string were broken, he would still welcome death with a strong
heart," she thought.

The evening was approaching and the Crow village in plain sight. Blue
Sky arranged her hair and dress as well as she could like that of a Crow
woman, and with an extra robe she made for herself a bundle that looked
as if it held a baby in its many wrappings. The community was still
celebrating its recent victory over the Sioux, and the camp was alive
with songs and dances. In the darkness she approached unnoticed, and
singing in an undertone a Crow lullaby, walked back and forth among the
lodges, watching eagerly for any signs of him she sought.

At last she came near to the council lodge. There she beheld his face
like an apparition through the dusk and the fire-light! He was sitting
within, dressed in the gala costume of a Crow.

"O, he is living! he is living!" thought the brave maiden. "O, what
shall I do?" Unconsciously she crept nearer and nearer, until the sharp
eyes of an Indian detected the slight difference in her manner and
dress, and he at once gave the alarm.

"Wah, wah! Epsaraka! Epsaraka! A Sioux! A Sioux!"

In an instant the whole camp had surrounded the girl, who stood in their
midst a prisoner, yet undaunted, for she had seen her lover, and the
spirit of her ancestors rose within her.

An interpreter was brought, a man who was half Crow and half Sioux.

"Young and pretty daughter of the Sioux!" exclaimed the chief, "tell us
how you came here in our midst undetected, and why!"

"Because," replied the Blue Sky, "your brave warriors have slain my only
brother, and