“Tell me about the white men who shot you. Why did they shoot at you?” Hawk asked.

“They were waiting in ambush to kill us and steal our horses, I think,” Swift Runner replied. He went on to tell Hawk the entire circumstances that brought him and his wounded father back to this stream. He and his father were on their way to Lost Creek, hoping to find deer there. They were on the road that leads to Helena, and as they approached the creek, they were suddenly shot at by the two white men hiding in ambush. Black Elk was hit and told Swift Runner to play dead until the shooting stopped and their attackers went after the horses. When they were chasing the horses, he got up and ran to hide, hoping the white men would leave, and he could come back to help his father. “We had only our bows,” he explained. “We could not shoot back.” Black Elk managed to get to his feet with his son’s help and tried to walk back to their camp in the mountains. But it was too much for him, and he was barely able to get to this stream before he collapsed. “When I saw you coming, I pulled my father up under these bushes. I thought you were one of them.”

Hawk was beginning to get a clear picture in his mind of what was supposed to have happened. The two men he pursued had set up an ambush that was intended for him. Thanks to Black Elk and Swift Runner’s unfortunate luck, they unwittingly might have saved his life. There could be no other reason for Booth and his friend to wait on that road in ambush. “Where is your camp?” he asked then.

“In the mountains the white man calls Big Belts.”

“Ain’t that a long way to go huntin’?” Hawk commented. No matter which part of that mountain chain their camp was located in, it was a long way from here.

“We have to go where the deer are,” Swift Runner answered.