nocks are out in the mountains, looking out. Take off your hat and your dress and upbraid your hair, and put this blanket round you, so if they should come down they would not know who it is. Here is some paint. Paint your face quick. Here, men, hide your guns and take off your clothes and make yourselves look as well as you can.”
All this was done as quickly as possible, and we were all dressed like the hostile Bannocks. I asked,—
“Where is our father?”
“We are all up over that mountain. We are but six miles from here.”
“I must go to him. I have a message for him and for all our people, too.”
“Oh, no, dear sister, you will be killed if you go there, for our brother Natchez has made his escape three days ago. They were going to kill him because he had saved the lives of three white men. Oh, dear sister, let me pray you not to go, for they will surely kill you, for they have said they will kill every one that comes with messages from the white people, for Indians who come with messages are no friends of ours, they say every night.”
“But, dear brother, they will not know me.”
“Yes, Oytes will know you, for he is their chief now, since Buffalo Horn is killed.”
“Dear brother, I am sorry to tell you that I must go to my father, for I have come with a message from General O. O. Howard, I must save my father and his people if I lose my life in trying to do it, and my father’s too. That is all right. I have come for you all. Now let us go.”
The mountain we had to go over was very rocky and steep, almost perpendicular. Sometimes it was very hard for us to climb up on our hands and knees. But we got up at last, and looked down into the hostile encampment.
