kept them from warping. The arrows
were of two different kinds, those for hunting and those for war. The
barb of the war arrow was short, and it was not fastened very tightly to
the shaft. When it struck the enemy, it would become detached and remain
in the wound, while the shaft fell away. A cruel device, but not worse
than has since been shown by highly civilized people in a universal war.

The head of the hunting arrow was longer, more tapering and it was
fastened securely. The people of the village made these in much greater
numbers than the war arrows, as they certainly expected no fighting with
men before the spring, and then they would procure ammunition for their
rifles. The Sioux were not good marksmen at long range, but they shot
their arrows with amazing swiftness. Will noted that a man holding a
dozen arrows in his left hand could fire them all in as many seconds,
and they could be discharged with such power that at very close range
one would pass entirely through the body of a buffalo.

While Will did not learn to shoot the arrows as fast as the Indians, he
was soon a better marksman at long range than anybody else in the
village. Then Xingudan gave him the most beautiful bow he had ever seen.
It was made of pieces of elkhorn that had been wrapped minutely and as
tightly as possible with the fresh intestines of a deer. When the
intestines dried the bow became to all purposes a single piece of
powerful horn, yet with the flexibility and elasticity that one horn did
not have. It was unbreakable, it did not suffer from weather, and it had
among the Sioux the same value that a jewel of great price has among
white people. Will knew that old Xingudan considered it a full
equivalent for his repeating rifle, revolver and field glasses that the
old chief kept in his lodge.

Will and the Crane, otherwise Pehansan, formed a warm friendship, and he
found a similar friend in Roka, the stalwart warrior who had come with
the order for his death by torture. Soon after he received the gift of
the great bow the three decided on a hunting expedition toward the upper
end of the valley, all traveling on snowshoes.

"Beware of the wild beasts, my son," said Inmutanka.

"We have heard nothing of them for a week past," said Will.

"The greater reason to expect them, because the word has been sent over
a thousand miles of snow fields that we are here to be eaten. I know you
are brave, watchful and quick, but take many arrows