Wayaka may have a star," he said, "but it will be of no avail, because
the stars of the Sioux, being so much the stronger, will overcome it."

"We shall see," replied the lad. Yet, despite all his brave bearing, his
heart was faint within him. Heraka did not speak to him again, and by
the same sort of mental telepathy he felt, after a while, that the chief
had dropped away from his side, and had been replaced by the original
warrior.

Although eyes were denied to him, for the present, all his other
faculties became heightened as a consequence, and he began to use them.
He was sure that they were still traveling on the plains, so much dust
rose, and now and then he coughed to clear it from his throat. But they
were not advancing into the deeps of the great plains, because twice
they crossed shallow streams, and on each occasion all the ponies were
allowed to stop and drink.

Will knew that his own pony at the second stream drank eagerly, in fact,
gulped down the water. Such zest in drinking showed that the creek was
not alkaline, and hence he inferred that they could not be very far from
hills, and perhaps from forest. He surmised that they were going either
west or north. A growing coolness, by and by, indicated to him that
twilight was coming. Upon the vast western plateau the nights were
nearly always cold, whatever the day may have been.

Yet they went on another hour, and then he heard the voice of Heraka,
raised in a tone of command, followed by a halt. An Indian unbound his
feet and said something to him in Sioux, which he did not understand,
but he knew what the action signified, and he swung off the pony. He was
so stiff from the long ride that he fell to the ground, but he sprang up
instantly when he heard a sneering laugh from one of the Indians.

"Bear in mind, Heraka," he said, "that I cannot see and so it was not so
easy for me to balance myself. Even you, O chief, might have fallen."

"It is true," said Heraka. "Inmutanka, take the bandage from his eyes."

They were welcome words to Will, who had endured all the tortures of
blindness without being blind. He felt the hands of the elderly Indian
plucking at the bandage, and then it was drawn aside.

"Thank you, Dr. Inmutanka," he said, but for a few moments a dark veil
was before his eyes. Then it drifted aside, and he saw that it was
night, a night in which the figures around him appeared dimly. Heraka
stood a few feet away, gazing at him maliciously