"Look! look!" exclaimed a warrior, "two
babies hung from the saddle of a mule!"
No one heeded this man's call, and his arrow
did not touch Nakpa or either of the boys, but
it struck the thick part of the saddle over the
mule's back.
"Lasso her! lasso her!" he yelled once
more; but Nakpa was too cunning for them.
She dodged in and out with active heels, and
they could not afford to waste many arrows on
a mule at that stage of the fight. Down the
ravine, then over the expanse of prairie dotted
with gray-green sage-brush, she sped with her
unconscious burden.
"Whoo! whoo!" yelled another Crow to
his comrades, "the Sioux have dispatched a
runner to get reinforcements! There he goes,
down on the flat! Now he has almost reached
the river bottom!"
It was only Nakpa. She laid back her cars
and stretched out more and more to gain the
river, for she realized that when she had crossed
the ford the Crows would not pursue her far-
ther.
Now she had reached the bank. With the
intense heat from her exertions, she was ex-
tremely nervous, and she imagined a warrior
beind every bush.
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