vivid streaks from the skies, the Big Chief cast a thunderbolt in
playfulness at the feet of Sitting Bull. The shock of the hand of the
Great Spirit did not escape me; for hours I lay like one slain in
battle. My warriors were in consternation; they ran hither and thither
in affright, calling on the Manitou to preserve their chief. You came,
Scarlet Boy, in the midst of all the panic;--came, and though then but
a stripling, you applied simple remedies that restored Sitting Bull to
the arms of his warriors.[A]

"From that hour Sitting Bull was your friend--is your friend, now, and
will be as long as the red-men exist as a tribe."

"Thank you, chief;" and Fearless Frank grasped the Indian's hand and
wrung it warmly. "I believe you mean all you say. But I am surprised
to find you engaged at such work as this. I have been told that
Sitting Bull made war only on warriors--not on women."

An ugly frown darkened the savage's face--a frown wherein was depicted
a number of slumbering passions.

"The pale-face girl is the last survivor of a train that the warriors
of Sitting Bull attacked in Red Canyon. Sitting Bull lost many
warriors; yon pale squaw shot down full a half-score before she could
be captured; she belongs to the warriors of Sitting Bull, and not to
the great chief himself."

"Yet you have the power to free her--to yield her up to me. Consider,
chief; are you not enough my friend that you can afford to give me the
pale-face girl? Surely, she has been tortured sufficiently to satisfy
your braves' thirst for vengeance."