Chapter XVIII
Songbird was not the only one who was lonesome. Star, too, had been leftin camp, where only a few ponies, whose knees were too stiff, or whosebacks were weak from age, kept him company. Although he was no longer acolt, he hated to be away from his mother and friends. Even the Big GrayHorse and the Old White Horse had been taken with Quannah.
Star had heard Quannah say to Songbird, "He is your pony. I have enoughwithout him, for I will take the Big Gray Horse to ride if Running Deergrows tired. So I will leave Star with you."
Three weeks after the warriors had left the village, Star wandered up tothe big tepee and poked at the entrance with his nose. Songbird liftedthe flap and stroked his nose, for she had heard him coming. Then shedropped the flap again, as she did not want any one to see what she wasdoing.
First she took pieces of dry buffalo meat and tied them together in abunch, then she laid them carefully in a large square of buckskin. Withthem she placed some of the little cakes made of pounded meat and nuts,and as she glanced around she saw a prayer-stick, which she laid on theother things. The four corners of the buckskin were then drawn togetherand bound securely by a twisted thong.
After these preparations she took her doll and tucked it into the beltthat held her robe at the waist. It was now almost dark.
She went out of the tepee and mingled with the other children, untilthey scattered for the night. Then Songbird returned to the tepee andsat alone, her arms about her knees, and her eyes staring steadilybeyond the raised flap at the dim outline of the hill over which herfather had ridden.
Satisfied, at last, that no one would notice her, she slipped cautiouslyfrom the tepee and made her way to where Star was stretched out amongthe old ponies. A hobble was on his front ankles, so that he would notstray during the night.
Songbird unfastened the hobble and thrust it into the bundle she wascarrying, and Star rose to his feet. His head bent for the bridle in herhand. She did not mount the pony, but led him away from camp withoutarousing any one. Then clutching the bundle which she had prepared inthe tepee, she climbed to Star's back and turned his head in thedirection in which her father had led the warriors.
She had no fear that she would not be able to find them, for she knewtheir ponies would make a plain trail, and though she could not see itherself, Star would know and follow it. The Great Spirit taught ponieshow to do that.
It was the memory of Preloch, who had ridden beside Peta Nocona when hehad gone to fight the white men, that made Songbird determine that shewould find her father and ride with him. She could shoot arrows as wellas any large boy, and she could ride much better than most of them.
If her father told her that she could not stay and fight, she wouldremind him that the little boys who had frightened the white horses hadnot been any older than she was now. So she had brought her bow and allthe arrows that she had been saving for a long time, and when she foundher father she would show him that she was not a baby. She had her bow,her arrows, food to eat, and Star, who could out-run any other Quahadapony except Running Deer.
So she rode while it was dark, trusting Star to keep the trail. When thesun rose, the hoof prints of unshod ponies could be seen distinctly,though in some places the wind had stirred dry sand over them.
As a slight rise in the ground gave her a chance to look back, Songbirdsaw nothing moving, and felt quite sure that no one in the village hadyet discovered her absence. Knowing that only slow old horses remainedin the camp with the squaws, she hastened on her way, determined to loseno time in putting as many miles as possible between herself and any whomight try to follow her.
It was only when the sun was low in the sky that Star and his littlerider halted beside a shallow pool that had once been a deep water-holein a swiftly running stream.
While Songbird lay on her face and drank her fill, Star, a shortdistance away, thrust his hot nose into the water and gulped greedily.Then he turned his attention to some green grass that had grown aboutthe edge of the pool, in spite of the drought, while Songbird, sittingbeside the water-hole, munched a piece of dry buffalo meat and one ofthe little cakes made of pounded corn and nuts that she had packed forher journey.
As the sun sank beyond the edge of the land, Songbird, weary but notafraid, lay down on the ground to sleep. Star, hobbled carefully toprevent his straying far, stretched near her. He did not sleep.
At the least sound he lifted his head and pricked up his ears, while hepeered with bright eyes into the night. He knew that coyotes might beprowling close, and he was ready to leap to his feet and fight them withhis strong teeth and nimble heels if they came where his little mistressslept so soundly. Once in the night she woke. He heard her move, thensuddenly she called in a half-frightened voice:
"Star!"
His soft nicker answered that he had not left her, and he rose to goclose to her. When he settled down again, Songbird's hand rested on hisshoulder and her head was pillowed on his neck. Her other hand held herdoll.
Thus the sun saw them when it peeped over the opposite edge of theworld the next morning. Then it shot golden arrows silently, andSongbird's eyes opened. For a few minutes she wondered where she was,but as Star twitched a little she raised her head quickly and sat up,rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Star lost no time in getting on his feet. He had kept very still so thathe might not disturb her, and it felt good to move about. Songbirdreached down and unfastened the hobbles that held his front feet so thathe could take only short steps of about eight inches, or hop with bothfront feet at the same time. As soon as he was free he lay down androlled over three times without stopping, kicking his heels in the air.It was easy to roll over now that he was so strong and fully grown.
It did not take long for the two wanderers to finish breakfast. A drinkof water from the pool, and food such as they had eaten for dinner theprevious night, satisfied them both. After that, Songbird slipped therawhide bridle on Star, picked up her doll and carefully brushed thedust from it, then tucked it safely into her belt. Mounting her pony,she started again on her way to find her father.
But the trail became more faint, and a hot, dry wind blew dust into hereyes. As the sun rose higher the wind became stronger, and at lastnothing but a haze of yellow dust could be seen. Star plodded on, but atintervals he whinnied shrilly, hoping to hear an answer through the duststorm. Only the sound of the wind and the hiss of blowing sand came backto him.
All day they travelled in the sandstorm, and Songbird dropped the reinon her pony's neck, not knowing which way to guide him. The wind dieddown at sunset, but when the haze of dust lifted, Songbird faced astretch of desert, where only tiny clumps of dry weeds showed here andthere, half-buried by the heaped up sand that formed small mounds abouteach weed.
She knew then that she was lost on the Great Desert of the StakedPlains, where no white man could venture and come out safely, and whereeven the best trailers of the Quahadas travelled only when the warriorshad no other way of outwitting their pursuers.
As she sat on Star, looking at the endless sand, all the stories she hadheard the older people tell about the suffering from thirst on theStaked Plains came back to her. They had spoken of lost trails wherethe sand had shifted and buried all traces even in one hour. There hadbeen a Quahada runner, who, lost for five days without water, had foundhis way back to camp but had died before he could swallow the water thatthe Indians held to his lips.
Songbird knew that there was no water on this desert except when therain fell heavily, and then it gathered only for a short time in ahollow, for the hot sun and the dry sand soon made it disappear. Thissummer there had been no rain.
Since leaving the pool that morning, Songbird and Star had found noother water, but she had hoped that the trail of her father would leadto some. He knew all the country and just where to find water each nightfor his warriors and ponies. But the terrible dust storm had blinded herand the wind had blown the loose sand over the Quahada trail.
Her eyes grew big with fear, an
d her shoulders, which had been held sobravely when the sand storm beat upon her, now drooped as though a heavyweight were placed on her neck.
Miles and miles of silence and loneliness threatened her on every side.
Her head sank forward until it rested on Star's shaggy mane, and herarms clung tightly about his neck. There was no one to remind her thatshe was the daughter of a chief. Only Star and the Great Spirit heardthe sobs of a frightened, lonely little child.
But at last she raised her head, and sat thinking intently. Then sheturned Star's head in the opposite direction. That morning when she hadwakened, she remembered now, the sun had shone in her eyes, and she hadtravelled toward it until it was straight above her head.
Songbird knew that the village must lie in the same direction as thesunset. If Star could take her to the water pool once more, she couldfind her way to the Quahada camp. She understood now the risk of tryingto follow her father, and that made her decide that she would try toreturn to the camp and stay there until he should come back.
The tracks made earlier in the day by Star's feet were alreadyindistinct, as the loose sand did not hold an impression very long, andthe faintest wind hid it completely. Beyond the desert a trail remaineddistinct for a long time.
It was growing dark. Songbird was so tired that she wanted to cry again,but she blinked her eyes fiercely, reminding herself that her fatherwas a chief. As they travelled toward the place where the sun set, shetook a piece of the dry meat from her bundle and started to chew it. Butshe was so thirsty that it choked her. So she put it back uneaten.
Hopefully she looked about for a sign of a mesquite bush, knowing thatshe could quench her thirst by chewing the beans that grew in pods fromthe branches. But lack of rain had kept any beans from forming, and sheremembered that the mesquite bushes near the camp had yielded no crop.Only a bit of shrivelled desert brush, half buried in the sand, met hereyes as she rode.
A terrible fear conquered her, and she struck Star's sides sharply withher moccasined heels. At once he swung into an easy, swift lope, hisears cocked and his eyes fixed straight ahead of him. Songbird did nottry to guide him now, but allowed the rein to lie loosely on his neck,while she balanced herself to his movements.
At times the pony slowed down to a walk, but he did not stop, andSongbird did not have to urge him to resume his quicker gait. Where shehad guided him earlier in the day, he now went of his own free will.Some instinct beyond that of any human being told Star which way to go.
More than once Songbird, too sleepy to sit erect, laid her head onStar's neck, where the thick mane made a soft pillow. Then the ponywalked very slowly and very carefully while Songbird slept. Once sheslipped from his back to the soft sand. Though it wakened her at once,the fall did not hurt her, and as she lay on her back, staring up, shesaw Star standing beside her. Patiently he was waiting for her to climbon his back. Then Songbird knew that her pony would not desert her, eventhough it were dark and he wore no hobbles.
So through the long night Star carried her safely. With the first graylight of dawn, the pony gave a soft nicker of pleasure, and broke intohis swiftest run. Songbird leaned down and patted his black neck. Aheadof them loomed a group of trees, and she knew, as well as Star, that thetrees grew beside the water-hole.
When they reached it, both pony and child drank as though they wouldnever stop. Songbird bathed her face and held her arms in the water,while Star walked out to the deepest part of the pool and stood thereheaving great sighs of content.
Afterward, still standing knee deep in the pool, he stretched his neckso that he could nibble the grass growing on its edges while Songbirdate the dry meat that no longer choked her.
Then, side by side, Star and Songbird lay down to sleep.
Only the buckskin Indian doll guarded them, but its painted eyes glaredso fiercely that it would have taken a very brave person to haveventured near!