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happened was when Jimmy staggered into town carrying a great buffalo-robe, ornamented with bead and porcupine work-the finest of its kind, said old Bill Bascomb, who had been a trapper and knew. Jimmy would disappear into the woods and come out looking mighty solemn and important, carrying with him great quivers filled with arrows, guns, tomahawks, in almost endless array, and then came axheads of stone, and queer-looking rocks, and finally rings and jewelry. He always went into the woods alone, and when he came out his father would meet him with the wagon and carry the findings back to the Warrick library, where they hung on the walls and began to pile on the floor-such piles of rich skins, of bead-work, of Indian weapons of war! The whole town watched and waited to see what would come next. We boys hung around the Warrick fence in crowds all day, waiting for Jimmy and his father to drive up with their load. Everybody was asking, "Where did that boy get those wonderful things?" Some tried to follow; but Jimmy always gave them the slip.

Then one day both newspapers in our town printed a story all about a tremendous find of Indian wealth, and, along with it, a picture of Jimmy as the finder. Jimmy tried mighty hard not to look as though he felt pretty big; but I don't see how he could help it; do you? At first it was just the home papers, but later on many other papers printed it.

Everybody in town was getting pretty excited, and I could tell it was a mighty big thing because Father asked me about it, and he does n't usually bother with such doings. Then one day it came out that the head of a great university was coming. Jimmy's father had telegraphed him, and he had wired that he was coming at once.

I was there, standing alongside of the three o'clock train, when the great man came. He was a big tall man, with white hair and kind blue eyes. Jimmy said I could come, too, and the man and Jimmy's father and Jimmy and me all went into the Warrick library. And say! do you know, it was packed pretty nearly solid from floor to ceiling with Indian things. "Phew!" said the man when he saw it; "this certainly is a find!”

As he looked over the collection he got more and more excited. He had a note-book and checked off the different things. He would put down: "800 spear-points, all identical, probably the same maker, largest cache of its kind yet found." Once he said, "I never saw white flint ax-heads before, but here are 45

perfect ones." And then he would pick up one queer-looking stone after another, and would say to himself, "H-m-m-m, ceremonial stones, pendants, gorgets, butterfly-stones;" and then he would put them down on the list. "These skins are remarkably preserved," he said; and after he had tested some brown stains on the beaded blankets, he added: "These are bloodstains; all these blankets have been soaked with blood. Was there ever an Indian battle near here?"

"I never heard of any," said Mr. Warrick. I could n't help piping up then with, "Yes, there was, Mister! Mrs. Greenborough can tell you all about it—it was Sioux and Chippewas, right over on her farm, and she said the Sioux carried off all the Chippewas' things."

"Well, well!" said the university man, “here is the Chippewa mark on these moccasins, and yes-this is the sign of the Sioux worked in in the beadwork on these buffalo and beaver robes. It might be it might be that these blankets with the blood-stains were some taken from the Chippewas at that battle."

Then Jimmy showed him some of the jewelry, and there were lots of military buttons. Most of the jewelry was old-fashioned, heavy, old gold.

"Some of this must have been taken from the white settlers; the Indians probably killed the settlers or emigrants and the soldiers guarding the wagon-trains, and then cached their plunder," said the great man. "This is the greatest find of its kind I have had anything to do with in all my experience of thirty years with the university. You are to be congratulated, Jimmy," he added.

And Jimmy looked down, proud and pleased as could be.

When he had made a careful list and description of everything, he said to Jimmy, "Now let me hear just exactly how and where you found these"; and he took out his notebook to jot down what Jimmy was to say.

"Yes," said Jimmy, "I can tell you how I got these; but I can't tell where."

"Yes, you will tell where," said Jimmy's father, looking toward the barn with a look that all us boys know.

"I can't," said Jimmy, his lip trembling; "'cause I can't find the place now. I know pretty near where it is, but I can't find it." "Let the boy go ahead and tell his story," said the university man.

Jimmy said: "Powless and me were chums, and I told him when I was visiting my uncle on the Pine Ridge Reservation about there

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THE QUEST.

"POWLESS BOUND MY EYES TIGHTLY SO I DID N'T SEE ANYTHING, AND THEN PULLED ME THROUGH THE WOODS AFTER HIM"

sand, and showed him how to find the place in the cliff where the Sioux kept the things they captured. After I came home from my trip to my uncle, Powless slipped off the reservation and found me down at our hiding-place; did n't he?" said Jimmy, turning to me.

"I was there when he came," I spoke up. "After we left you," went on Jimmy, "we I went into the dark woods the other side of Constance Bridge and followed the Willow River for a long way-you know, it twists in and out; and then Powless left me after he had told me to wait till he came back. He came back in about a half an hour and said he did n't want even me to know how to get to the place where the things were hid.

He

circle on the ground, and high cliffs were all around. It was a queer-looking place, with funny-looking rocks thrown up on edge; some of them looked as though they might roll down the cliffs any minute. I did n't like the looks of it-it did n't look safe. "Help me with this stone," Powless said; and when we pulled at it hard together, it rolled away and there underneath was a deep black hole. It was mighty dark down there, so we lit some branches and made a torch and went down inside. It looked as though somebody had dug it out inside; there were sort of stone steps cut out, and on the inside was a long passage, with rooms and other passages leading off to the sides. Along the big passage the walls

were cut into sort of long shelves, and on them lay great piles of Indian things; these things here are just a few of them that were near the hole and easy to get out; but back in there were just piles of things."

"What were in the other passages?" the university man asked.

"I don't know about most of them," said Jimmy, "but Powless went in one; and when he came out he said it was dead Indians, and I was afraid to look and see. He said he wanted me to have some of those things in the cave, so I stood up at the top of the hole and he passed them up to me; we did the same thing every day for nearly all the rest of the week, until we got all these things here out. Powless always blindfolded me when I came and went, so I never knew how we got there or went away. When I went home every day, after we had worked at the cave, he took the things that we had got and carried them away. I asked Powless what he did with them; he would n't tell me where he put them, but said he had put them away and would let me have them later. At the end of the week, that was just a month ago to-day, he said we were n't going to the cave any more-that he was going away. He did n't blindfold me, but brought me straight to a tepee he had made out of branches, and there under it was this big pile of things that we had taken out of the cave. Powless told me they were all for me. Then he made the sign of the Sioux on my right shoulder, gave me this arrow-head, and disappeared in the woods. I have n't seen him since. I wrote to Uncle Fred at the Pine Ridge Reservation, but he says Powless has gone, no one knows where. After he went away I came home and got Father to go with me and get these things. I 've tried to find the cave, but I can't do it."

"Strange, very strange!" said the great man; "this is a remarkable collection and the university needs it."

Then Jimmy turned to his father and said, "Shall I give this to the university?”

"It's yours. Do as you like with it, Jimmy," Isaid his father.

"All right," said Jimmy, "you can have the whole collection, except this pink arrow-head here. Powless put it into my hand just before he went into the woods."

"Let me see it," said the great man. Jimmy held it out-such a beauty it was, a soft pink color, of wonderful shape.

"It is very precious," said the man. "I know of only one other like it."

"I want to keep it," said Jimmy, “'cause—

'cause I'm afraid Powless is dead!" and

Jimmy looked very sad.

"What makes you think that?" said his father.

"Because there was a high cliff hanging over the cave, and the rocks on it looked as though they were going to fall any minute; and about an hour after Powless left me I heard a roar way off in the woods, and it sounded as if it might be the cliff falling; and since then, when I can't find out anything about him, I 'm-I 'm afraid he went back to the cave and was killed."

That was all. The university man stayed through the week, trying, with Jimmy's help, to find the cave, but without success; then he left, carrying the collection with him. There in the university museum the collection that Jimmy got hangs to-day; but somewhere in the dark woods there is a fallen cliff, and underneath it a deep cave that holds a far more wonderful collection of the relics of many past generations of Indians.

The boys at New Richmond, Wisconsin, know that, after you cross Constance Bridge, you turn to the left along the Willow River, go across an open field that is crossed by gullies in which woodchucks have made their holes, and then, going on, you come to a dark forest that, in the springtime, is open and just a dandy place to get dog-tooth violets, but that in summer is choked deep with undergrowth. Boys don't go in there much, it is so deep and solemn.

I will tell you, as nearly as I can, how to try to find this hidden cave. First, follow that river in and out as it winds, keeping close to the shore; then, over at the right, but back a ways from the river, are low cliffs that gradually rise higher. When you come to the spot where the high cliffs on the right come right up to the river-bank, there is the one sure place that we know about. It was right there, where the cliffs and river meet, that Powless made his tepee and placed the things that Jimmy got. Somewhere farther on, where the cliffs twist and turn, or maybe back inland among the gullies, there is the cave. Where it is, I don't know; Jimmy can't find it, though we hunted for it when we were boys and often do now, when we are older. Perhaps some time some lucky boy will discover it, with all its hidden treasures of buried Indians. As nothing has ever been heard from Powless, it may be Jimmy is right, and that somewhere underneath that cliff and in the depths of the cave Powless sleeps with his fathers.

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"HERE'S FUN!" as the old raven used to croak, in "Dick and Jack on Sable Island"-fun for winter evenings when the snow is on the ground or for rainy days in spring or the hot afternoons of the summer; in short, for any time when a boy is inclined to enjoy some sport that requires little energy.

But, you say, an indoor track-meet? That means long training, and athletic effort, and all sorts of things that are included in the art of running and jumping and hurdling, etc.

But not this kind of an indoor track-meet, because-well, this meet is one wherein wooden counters do all the athletic work and you and your chums sit and cheer and urge them on to victory. So my indoor track-meet is one that requires little expense, small equipment, and can be made to include any number of fellows from two up. And it can even be played as a solitaire affair, all by your lonesome.

But to details. To get the proper fun out of our indoor track-meet, let us make it follow a real outdoor track-meet as closely as possible, even if we are using wooden men, instead of real live athletes, and a pasteboard track, instead of the regulation cinder-path.

yards for one lap, or four laps to a mile. In preparing for our indoor track-meet, we must have a similar track, with a distance to represent the 440 yards. This is best done by getting a piece of cardboard 24 by 36 inches at least (the top of a woman's suit-box will do), and, with pen and ink, rounding off the corners. Then draw an oval at the center, making our track about five inches wide.

With the track laid out, we must next mark off spaces, for our wooden athletes can't run except by moving them by throw of dice, and to do that we must mark off spaces. In the complete circuit of the track we ought to have 110 spaces, each one representing four yards and making a complete distance of 440 yards, or a quarter of a mile for the circuit.

The next thing we need is dice. For the track events we do not need more than three, but for the field events we must have fifteen.

The athletes may be represented by wooden checkers, buttons, or some similar counter. The best is to use pasteboard disks about the size of a nickel, cutting them out yourself, because on them can be placed the letter of the college or school you want to be in the meet, such as "Y" for Yale, or "H" for Harvard. Copyright 1919, by Ralph W. Kinsey. All rights reserved.

Now, if you remember, most tracks are 440

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