hour of his whole life thus far, and he well knew that the story would
spread through the Nez Perce nation and lead the old men of it to expect
great things of him: it was a beginning of fame, and it kindled in him
a tremendous fever for more. His ambition grew and grew as his appetite
went down, and his strength began to come back to him.

It was a grand feast, and it was not long before there were braves and
squaws ready to go and cut up the bull and bring every ounce of him to
camp. Starvation had been defeated, and all that happiness had been
earned by "Two Arrows."

CHAPTER IV

THE MINING EXPEDITION

The place away out upon the rolling plain, at which the unlucky
hunting-camp of the Nez Perce band had been pitched when the locusts
visited them, was occupied again a few days after they left it. The
new-comers were not Indians of any tribe but genuine white men, with an
uncommonly good outfit for a small one. They were one of the hundreds of
mining and exploring expeditions which every year set out for one range
of mountains or another to try and find what there is in them. They are
all sure to find a good deal of hard work, privation and danger, and
some of them discover mines of gold and silver.

This expedition consisted of two very strongly built but not heavy
wagons, with canvas-covered tilts, and each drawn by four large mules.
What was in the wagons except the drivers could only be guessed at, but
riding at the side or ahead or behind them as they came towards the
camping-place were six men and a boy. There were several spare horses
and mules, and the whole affair looked as if it had cost a good deal of
money. It costs a great deal to bring up eight men and a boy so that
these may be fairly included, but there were wide variations in the
external garnishing of the riders and drivers.

They had all been guided to that spot, partly by the general aim of
their undertaking, partly by the trail they were following, and a good
deal by a tall old fellow with a Roman nose and a long, muddy yellow
beard, who rode in front upon a raw-boned, Roman-nosed sorrel mare, with
an uncommon allowance of tail. When they reached that camping-ground it
was not late in the afternoon, but it was not well to go on past a deep
pool of water, surrounded by willows and cottonwood-trees, however
little grass there was to be had in the neighborhood. They had found
water and grass getting scarcer and scarcer for two or three