The Indians of the valley were engaged at their morning tasks in front
of the tepees, the women making and mending clothes, and St. Jean
Bateese showing the boys how to wind the grip of a bow, when without
warning the haggard white man and white woman rose over the edge of the
green slope. The Indians dropped their work, and broke into loud
exclamations, which brought Nahnya quickly out of one of the tepees.
She silenced them peremptorily. Nahnya herself betrayed nothing. She
approached Ralph and Kitty with a hard and accusing face, and waited
for their explanation.
Despair made Ralph as callous-seeming and as laconic as Nahnya herself.
"The white men know about this place," he said abruptly. "Joe Mixer
and his party. They are on their way here. I came to warn you."
Nahnya's mask was unbroken. "How many?" she asked.
"Three white men and a native."
"Who told them?" she asked accusingly.
Ralph looked away.
"It was I told them," cried Kitty quickly and tremulously. She felt as
if she were being ground to pieces between this stony pair. "They
tortured him to get it out of him! Look at him! He can scarcely
stand. You would have told them yourself."
"He tell you?" asked Nahnya remorselessly.
Kitty's voice began to escape from her control. "He was out of his
head!" she said. "It was when he first came. I told you that. He
told me in his fever. He didn't know what he was saying!"
Ralph turned on Kitty. "I didn't bring you here to defend me!" he said
harshly.
This was the last straw. Kitty turned from them and wept bitterly.
Neither Nahnya nor Ralph regarded her.
Nahnya said dully: "What matter who tell? It come anyway. Always I
know that."
There was a silence broken only by Kitty, struggling to master her
sobs. Nahnya studied the ground with a line between her brows, and
Ralph looked at Nahnya.
"What are you going to do?" he asked finally.
Nahnya flung up her head. "Fight!" she said.
Ralph's dull eyes brightened. "We pulled the bridge over to this side
of the hole after we crossed it," he said eagerly.
She nodded brief approval. "It take them time to bring logs to make
another. I will think all to do. You take some rest."
Nahnya issued her orders, and Ahahweh took Kitty in charge. St. Jean
Bateese led Ralph to his tepee, and Marya came and dressed his
shoulder, and made a sling for his arm. They left him to sleep, but
Ralph lay watching through the tepee opening, and when he saw Nahnya
start off in the direction of the cave with a rifle under her arm, he
followed.
Nahnya ordered him to return. "They not come long time yet, maybe not
till to-morrow. Anyway, you can't fire a gun. Get your sleep!"
"There's no use talking about it," Ralph said stubbornly.
Nahnya shrugged and went on. Kitty was likewise on the watch. She
followed a little way after Ralph. Nahnya frowned, but said nothing.
Nahnya took up her post on the rocks above the entrance to the cave.
She told Ralph coldly that she had decided to make her stand here. He
approved it; her enemies must issue one by one into the daylight below.
She had armed St. Jean Bateese and Charley with rifles, she said, and
the two boys had their bows and arrows. They were all coming directly
with blankets, food, and ammunition sufficient for a siege if required.
[Illustration: "_She had raised and pointed the gun, but held her
fire_"]
They prepared for a long wait. Ralph sat down in the grass a little
removed from Nahnya, and bowed his head on his knees. By and by he
fell over like an inanimate object and slept as he lay. Farther away
sat Kitty, like an humble dependent. She nursed her knees and stared
over the valley with tear-stained, lack-lustre eyes.
Ralph was awakened by a sharp exclamation from Nahnya. She had raised
and pointed the gun, but held her fire. Kitty knelt in the grass with
her hands pressed over her ears, terrified in prospect by the expected
shot. Ralph ran to the edge of the rocks and looked over. Philippe
Boisvert had just issued out of the cave. He held his empty hands over
his head, and came climbing up the rocks in that attitude.
Arrived within a dozen yards, the half-breed began to speak eagerly in
Cree. His eyes burned on Nahnya strangely. At the sound of his voice
surprise broke through the mask of her face.
"Philippe!" she murmured.
A flame of jealousy made Ralph's cold breast alive again. He had
thought he was past all feeling. "What is he saying?" he demanded to
know.
Nahnya's eyes were troubled. "I know him," she murmured. "From a long
time ago. He is the boy I talk with at the Mission school."
The half-breed continued his impassioned plea, and Nahnya was clearly
not unmoved by it. Philippe was a handsome young creature and the fire
of his feelings was seemingly an honest fire. Ralph ground his teeth.
Kitty, creeping closer, and searching Ralph's face, betrayed a
reflection of his jealousy in her own.
Nahnya soon recovered from her surprise. "Speak English," she
commanded Philippe coldly.
Ralph's heart was lightened. The half-breed bent an offensive scowl on
him, and his lips curved into a sneer. Ralph's returning look was
identical. Philippe told his tale with a swagger.
"Joe Mixer hire me at the portage to mak' a trip. I don' know what
for. I don' care. I go for fun, 'cause he got plenty w'iskey. Bam-by
he say he after Nahnya Crossfox. I lak' to kill him then, but I say
not'ing for 'cause I want to know where Nahnya Crossfox is. Seven year
I look for her. She is promise to me!"
"Promised!" cried Ralph, turning to Nahnya with stormy brows.
"It was a child's promise," she said coolly. "He soon forget it, and I
soon forget it."
Philippe launched into Cree again, protesting energetically. Nahnya
interrupted him in the same language. Her eyes flashed; under the lash
of her tongue the young man quailed.
"Now speak English," she said imperiously.
"I help Joe to chase the Doctor," Philippe went on sulkily, "because
the Doctor know where Nahnya is. Las' night I find out where she is
and I am through with Joe, but I bring him down the river with me to
sell him good. I hate all white men. When we come to the other side
the mountain, I say to Joe, you wait here, and I go spy out the way. I
come back soon. Joe say all right. He think I am his friend. He is a
fat fool. He want to kill us all to get the gold himself. He think I
not see it in his eye. He is a fool!"
"You say you fool him," said Nahnya. "Maybe you fool me, too!"
Philippe protested passionately in his native tongue. More than once
Ralph heard the word _moon-i-yas_, which he knew was Cree for white man.
"How did you get across the hole?" asked Nahnya.
"I leaped it," said Philippe with a swagger.
"Are the others behind you?"
"Could the fat man leap it?" said Philippe, "or the little scared one?
or crazy Crusoe?"
"No, but maybe you put the bridge back for them," said Nahnya.
"Tie my hands!" cried Philippe passionately, "and if they come, kill
me!"
"Come here," said Nahnya coolly. "Hold up your hands."
The half-breed obeyed, his eyes fixed ardently on Nahnya.
"See if he have a gun," Nahnya said to Ralph.
Philippe scowled furiously at the indignity, but kept his hands up.
Ralph quickly satisfied himself that the other was unarmed.
"Good!" said Nahnya, with an inscrutable face. She offered Philippe
her hand. "We will be friends. Let us sit down and talk what to do."
"Nahnya!" cried Ralph jealously.
She bent the same towering look on him that had crushed the half-breed.
"Must I ask you when I make a friend?" she said.
Ralph, forced to remember that he had brought all this trouble upon
her, hung his head. They sat down to their council of war. There
could be no question of who was the leader. The dark girl had the
bearing of a queen who had risen above her human griefs and passions.
"Where are they waiting?" she asked.
"They camp at the edge of the big woods beside the gulch," said
Philippe. "Jim Sholto is with them."
"So!" said Nahnya.
Kitty, hearing her father's name, came closer.
"Jim is crazy when he find his daughter go," Philippe continued. "He
come after us in the dugout, and catch the raft. Jim say to me for say
to him," pointing at Ralph, "if he bring Jim's daughter back safe
before to-night, Jim not touch him. Jim let him go in his boat if he
want. Joe Mixer say them two can go all right. He don' care."
Ralph expressed no great concern at this offer. "We can send her out
to her father," he said. Nahnya said nothing.
"Jim send a letter," continued Philippe. He produced a twisted bit of
cotton on which some words were scrawled, and handed it to Kitty.
Reading it, she burst into tears again.
"Let them two go," said Philippe, scowling at Ralph. "I take them
back."
"Suppose I let them go," said Nahnya inscrutably. "What we do after?"
Philippe's eyes flashed, and his white teeth were bared. He hissed a
single sentence in Cree.
"You say you kill Joe Mixer and his men?" said Nahnya coolly.
Philippe, with a startled side-look at Ralph, remonstrated with her
anxiously.
"I tell you speak English," said Nahnya calmly. "He is my friend as
much as you."
Ralph's sore and humbled heart took what comfort it might from this.
"Well, it's easy," said Philippe, with a shrug of bravado. "One is
fat, and one is scare', and one is crazy. There was no man in our boat
but me!"
"Suppose you kill them," said Nahnya, "what we do after?"
He answered in Cree.
"You will stay here with me after?" she repeated.
Ralph's face flushed. "Nahnya----" he began hotly.
She ignored him. "There is no place here for you," she said to
Philippe, cold and accusatory as a high priestess. "You are half
white; you are bad like a white man and a red man together! I hear
them talk of you around the country. You make yourself crazy with
whiskey, and fight for nothing at all. Because you are strong you do
what you like! You make trouble always where you go! You say you hate
white men, but you can't stay away from them, because they have
whiskey! You are not white, you are not red, you are nothing! There
is no place for you here!"
All this was balm to Ralph's jealousy. He looked on the ground to keep
from showing any triumph over the discomfited young bravo.
After debating with herself, Nahnya said to Philippe, pointing down the
slope: "You go down there." To Ralph: "You wait here. I go by myself,
and think what to do."
While Ralph and the half-breed glowered at each other from twenty paces
distance, and the heavy-eyed dispirited Kitty crouched at Ralph's elbow
disregarded by all, Nahnya went away and sat on the edge of the rocks,
doubling her back, and digging her knuckles into her cheeks, while she
struggled with her problem.
St. Jean Bateese, Charley Crossfox, Ahmek, and Myengeen approached over
the meadow laden with the weapons, food, and blankets that Nahnya had
ordered them to bring. Arriving at the foot of the slope, where the
stream entered its rocky gulch, they cast down their packs, and with a
glance at the sun, instinctively set about building a fire and
preparing a meal. They looked with curious side-glances at the new
stranger who had found his way into their domain.
After a long time Nahnya arose. Ralph read in her face that her mind
was made up. He hastened to meet her, and Philippe likewise came
bounding up the slope. However, Nahnya was not yet ready to divulge
her plans. All she said was:
"Let us eat."
Her look was unfathomable. They were obliged to contain their
impatience as best they could.
All sat in the grass at the foot of the hill. It was a strangely
assorted company: Kitty, Ralph, Nahnya, and Philippe sat on one side of
the fire, with the four Indians facing them from the other. Nahnya's
face was smooth and composed, Philippe looked sullen, Ralph reckless
and despairing, while Kitty's lips trembled, and her eyes continually
filled. The Indian lads stared at the strangers with beady black eyes
expressing a mixture of animal curiosity and human unconcern. No one
of the company had any disposition to talk except St. Jean Bateese,
who, with his native politeness, felt that it was incumbent upon him to
tide the meal over pleasantly.
He meandered on in his soft and deprecating voice, illustrating his
simple remarks with quaint gesticulation. It disturbed him not at all
when no one listened. "There is a yellow ring around the sun to-day.
To-morrow will be much rain at night. It is good. The berries will
ripen good. This is a year of plenty for the people. When come the
leaves fall the bear-folk will be fat and tender of the berries, with
much thick, warm coats, I think. The bear he is lak a man, him lak to
mak' fun when him feel good. One tam I see a bear play beside a
stream. He is alone. He think nobody see him. He feel ver' good. He
run and dance and fall down, and laugh, and turn over his head because
he feel so good. I laugh me, till my ribs are sore!"
When Nahnya arose from the grass they all followed suit. Without any
preamble she said quietly: "Now I will tell you what I have thought."
All hung on her words except the two younger boys, who knew no English.
She darted an inexplicable look on Ralph, and said, with odd
abruptness: "Ralph and Kitty will go out to Jim Sholto."
Ralph flushed painfully. "I will not go!" he cried. "Send her! I
know I've no right to dictate to you; I brought all this on you! But
that gives me a right to stay here and help you out of it as much as I
can! Afterward I'll not trouble you. You needn't fear that. I'll go!"