given her was a promise that he would not forget all she had taught him.

The man whom Star followed stopped where Quannah and all the warriors stood with two little Comanche boys, who were looking up at the chief and listening carefully to every word he was speaking to them. Star was close enough to hear what was said.

"Ride swiftly," Quannah commanded. "Make no noise. When you are near the white men's camp lie closely and hold your hands tightly across your ponies' noses to keep them from calling out to the white men's ponies and warning them of danger."

"We will do as you say," the boys promised sturdily.

"Good!" the chief answered. "Leave your ponies while you crawl cautiously to the rope that holds the white men's ponies. Cut the rope and leap on the nearest pony, then shout loudly and beat the ponies with the pieces of buffalo hide you carry. That will frighten them so they will run away. Your own ponies will follow. You must drive the white men's ponies toward the place where we will be waiting to help you. Thus we will capture the white men's ponies, so the men cannot follow us to our women and children."

"We understand," replied the boys in one voice, while the Indians watched them and whispered to one another, "These children will be great warriors when they are full-grown men!"

Once again Quannah spoke to the boys. "The honour of the Quahada Comanches is in your hands. Guard it with your lives. If you are captured, let no man know why you were sent, nor where we are waiting. Do not whisper it even between your two selves, for the wind might steal your words and carry them to the white men's ears."

Then the old Medicine Man stepped before the two children, and his thin arms and trembling hands were extended over their heads. The boys knelt down. Around them like shadows in the faint starlight stood all the Quahada Comanche warriors, and their chief watched the two slender lads, his eyes full of pride.

"Great Spirit, hear the cry of your children. Help us save the game and the grass that we may live in peace and happiness in the land you gave to our fathers long ago. Send their spirits from the Happy Hunting Grounds this night that they may travel beside these children and give them courage and cunning to save the Comanche people. We are weak, we are few, and the white men are many and strong. We must go out to fight and we ask the Great Spirit to help us, for with the Great Spirit and the spirits of our forefathers we shall win over all our foes!"

In the silence that followed the Medicine Man's blessing, the boys rose to their feet. Then Star shivered with excitement as one of the boys grasped the mane that fell thickly on the pony's neck. With a quick, light bound the lad vaulted to Star's bare back. Beside them the other boy was astride a pony named Hawk.

Silently the circle of warriors parted so that there was a space. The young riders leaned down on the necks of the ponies and darted, side by side, through the pathway of Comanches, then on through darkness that wrapped the prairie like a heavy black cloak.