There was little danger of exposure while I ad-
vanced through the shelter of the lodges, for I was
always under partial cover. But I waited and watched
long before daring to pass across the wide open space
in the centre of which the fire had been findled. The
torture-post yet stood there, black and charred, while
the ground beneath was littered with dead ashes. The
bodies of three white men, two of them naked and
marked by fire, lay close at hand, just as they had been
carelessly flung aside to make room for new victims;
yet I dared not stop to learn who they might have been
in life. The sight of their foul disfigurement only ren-
dered me the more eager to reach the living with a
message of hope.
I moved like a snake, dragging my body an inch
at a time by firmly grasping with extended hands the
tough grass-roots, and writhing forward as noiselessly

327



N





WHEN WILDERNESS WAS KING

as if I were stalking some prey. There were times
when I advanced so slowly it would have puzzled a
watcher to determine whether mine was not also the
body of the dead. At length, even at that snail's rate
of progress, I gained the protection of the tepees upon
the other side of the camp» and skulked in among them.
The lodge just before me, blackened by paint and
weather, must be the one I sought. I rested close
within its shadow, striving to assure myself there was
no possibility of mistake. As my eyes lifted, I could
trace in dim outline the totem of the chief faintly
sketched on the taut skin : it was the same I had noted
on the brawny breast of Little Sauk.
