whether I mean people or not," said Hinpoha, and told
about finding the marked rock in the ravine.

"It is barely possible that something is buried there," said the
colonel, "although rocks have been marked for a good many reasons."

"It seemed such a good place to hide something," said Sahwah shrewdly.
"The ravine itself was dark and hard to get into, but it was easy to
find your way back to it if you had been there once, because all you had
to do was keep on going until you had passed seven big cedar trees. If
we picked our way through the woods by that trail, other people probably
have done the same thing. Maybe the Indians buried something there they
intended to come back after, and marked the rock they put it under."

"Possibly," said the colonel doubtfully. "A great many Indian relics
have been dug up around the shores of these lakes; arrow heads, pieces
of pottery and ornaments of various kinds. Such things might have been
buried before a hasty flight and never recovered."

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if there _was_ something buried under
that rock, and we should go there and dig it up!" said Hinpoha, half
starting up in her excitement.

"Mind, I'm not saying there _is_ anything buried there," said the
Colonel hastily. "I only said it was remotely possible. The Indians have
been gone from this region for so long that it is not safe to speculate
upon anything they might have left. I only know that from time to time
things _have_ been found accidentally."

"Do you think we'd better dig?" asked Hinpoha eagerly.

"Well, there wouldn't be any harm in it," said the colonel quizzically.
"You might find something of interest, and if you don't--digging is good
exercise." And there the subject was left.

"Tell us a real Indian story," begged Gladys of the colonel. "A story of
the old Indians."

The colonel obligingly consented and told them a tale as follows:

THE STORY OF BLUE ELK

"Blue Elk was the son of a Chieftain. During his boyhood the tribe to
which he belonged lived in the barren, hilly country lying to the north
of our great plains. They were forced to live there by their enemies,
who drove them out of the fertile hunting grounds which were theirs by
right. Thus the tribe was poor and had very few horses and other things
which the Indians counted as wealth. Their war costumes were not nearly
so splendid as those of other tribes and their women had very few
ornaments. They often