MARYA.
Colina drew near the girl, pausing as if casually interested in her
work. She was a fat girl, with a peculiarly good-humored expression,
and evinced no awe at Colina's approach, but unaffected delight.
Colina obeyed an inward suggestion, sent Cora back to the Grampierres,
and sat down beside Marya, determined to take plenty of time to
establish friendly relations.
This was not difficult. The plump, copper-skinned maiden was overjoyed
by the opportunity to examine anything so wonderful as a white girl at
close range.
No part of Colina's person or attire escaped her scrutiny. Marya
stroked her with a soft crooning. The fastidious Colina bore it,
smiling. At the throat of her waist Colina was wearing a topaz-pin, to
which the Indian girl's eyes ever returned, dazzled.
Colina finally took it off, and pinned it in Marya's cotton dress.
Marya gave way to an extravagant pantomime of joy. Bowing her head,
she seized Colina's hand, and pressed it to her forehead.
Meanwhile they exchanged such simple remarks as lent themselves to the
medium of signs. Colina finally ventured to pronounce the name "Nesis"
at the same time asking by a sign which included the teepees if she was
there.
Marya looked startled. She hesitated, but Colina's hold was now strong
upon her. She shook her head. First glancing cautiously around to
make sure they were not observed, she nodded in the direction of up
river.
By simple signs she told Colina that Nesis was in a village (crossed
fingers for teepees) beside a lake (a wide sweep, and an agitated,
flattened hand for shimmering water), and that it could be reached by a
journey with one sleep upon the way. (Here she paddled an imaginary
canoe, stopped, closed her eyes, inclined her head on her shoulder and
held up one finger.)
Colina, overjoyed, proceeded to further question. In the same graphic,
simple way she learned the story of Ambrose's imprisonment and how
Nesis got him out.
"Come!" she cried, extending her hand. "We'll see what Sergeant
Plaskett has to say to this!"
But when Marya understood that she was expected to repeat her story to
the policeman, a frantic, stubborn terror took possession of her. She
gave Colina to understand in no uncertain signs that the Indians would
kill her if she told the secret.
Colina, taking into account the pains they had gone to to keep it,
could not deny the danger. She finally asked Marya if she would take
her, Colina, to the place where Nesis was.
Marya, terrified, positively refused.
Pulling off her gauntlet, Colina displayed to Marya a ring set with a
gleaming opal. It was Marya's she let her understand, if she would
serve her.
Marya's eyes sickened with desire. She wavered--but finally refused
with a little moan. Terror was stronger than cupidity.
Colina debated with herself. She asked Marya if the way to go was by
paddling.
Marya shook her head. She gave Colina to understand that the canoes
were all tied up together and watched by the police. She signed that
the Kakisas had a few horses up the river a little way that the police
did not know about.
They stole out of camp at dawn, caught a horse and rode up the river.
Evidently there was regular travel between the two villages. Colina,
thinking of the policeman's confident belief that he had intercepted
all communications, smiled.
Colina finally asked if Marya would put her on the trail to the other
village--in exchange for the ring. Marya, after a struggle with her
fears, consented, stipulating that they must start before dark.
Colina understood from her signs that the biggest opal ever mined would
not tempt Marya to wander in the bush after dark.
Colina did some rapid thinking. She doubted whether Germain Grampierre
after having been warned by the police would go with her to the other
village.
She quickly decided that she didn't want him with her anyway, worthy,
stupid fellow that he was. Yet he had constituted himself her
protector, and he would hardly let her go without him. It did not
promise to be easy to hoodwink both Plaskett and Grampierre.
What she was going to do when she found Nesis, Colina did not stop to
consider. The thing to do was to find the girl, and trust to pluck and
mother wit for the rest.
Colina finally thought she saw her way clear. She asked Marya if she
would meet her in an hour on the Enterprise trail outside of camp. It
was now three o'clock.
Marya, with her eyes upon the opal, nodded. She gave Colina to
understand that she would be waiting at a place where the trail crossed
a stream, and climbed to a little prairie with thick bushes around it.
Leaving Marya, Colina returned to the police tents. Climbing the hill,
she had the satisfaction upon looking back to see that the Indian girl
had foresaken her moose-hide.
The edge of the bush was near her: it would not be hard for her to lose
herself. Simulating an air of discouragement, Colina told Sergeant
Plaskett she had learned nothing and signified her willingness to
return to Enterprise.
"I'd start at once," she said suggestively, "but my horses are tired."
Plaskett was greatly relieved. "I'll furnish you with fresh horses,"
he said instantly. "Let your horses stay here and rest up. I'll send
them in with the first patrol, and you can then return mine."
This was what Colina desired. She smiled on the policeman dazzlingly.
Plaskett sent a trooper for the horses, and himself escorted Colina
back to the spot at the foot of the hill where she had ordered the
Grampierres and Cora to wait for her.
She told Germain the same story. The half-breed who had been
interviewed by Plaskett in the meantime, was delighted by her resolve
to return. He instantly set to work to pack up.
In less than half an hour they started for home. As they mounted the
hill, Plaskett gallantly waved his cap from below. The bush swallowed
them. Colina was thinking: "What shall I do if she is afraid, and
doesn't come?"
However, less than a mile from the river, they forded a little brook,
climbed a shallow hill, and there, true to her agreement, waited Marya,
standing like a statue beside the trail.
Colina, making believe to be greatly astonished, dismounted, and drew
her apart. Marya, understanding from her glance of intelligence that
the others were not in the secret, gesticulated vividly for their
benefit.
"She tells me she knows where Nesis is hidden," Colina said to Germain.
"She says she will take me there."
"We will go back," said Germain.
Colina shook her head. "No need for you to come back," she said. "It
will only anger the policeman. You and Georges go on home. I will get
a policeman to go with me."
Germain protested, but his secret desire was to obey the sergeant's
orders, and Colina had no difficulty in persuading him.
A division of the baggage was made on the spot, and they parted. The
Grampierres continued toward Enterprise, and the three girls turned
back.
Colina breathed more freely. Plaskett now believed that she had gone
home with Germain, and Germain believed she had gone back to Plaskett.
Marya had mounted on their pack-horse. They had not gone far in the
trail, when she signified that they were to strike off to the left.
Colina pulled up. "Cora," she said, "it's not true that I am going to
get help from the police. I mean to go myself to the other Indian
village to get the girl I want. You don't have to come. You can ride
after Germain, and tell him I decided I didn't need you."
"I go wit' you," Cora said stolidly.
Colina beamed on her handmaiden, and offered her her hand. She was
willing to face the thing alone, but it was a comfort to have the
stolid dependable Cora at her side. Moreover, Cora was an admirable
cook and packer. Colina was not enamored of the drudgery of camp.
Marya led the way slowly through the trackless bush in the general
direction of the afternoon sun, or southwest. Colina guessed that they
were making a wide detour around the Indian village.
The going was not too difficult, for it was only second growth timber,
poplar and birch, with spruce in the hollows. The original monarchs
had been consumed by fire many years before.
They had covered, Colina guessed, about five miles when the sky showed
ahead through the tree trunks, and Marya signed that they were to
dismount and tie the horses. Leading them to the edge of the trees,
she made them lie down.
They found themselves overlooking a grassy bottom similar to that upon
which the Kakisa village stood. The outer edge of the meadow was
skirted by the brown flood of the river, and trees hemmed it in on
either side. A score of Indian ponies were feeding in the grass.
Marya made Colina understand that the trail to Kakisa Lake traversed
the little plain below alongside the river. She signified that some
men were expected from the upper village that day, and that Colina must
wait where she was until she saw them pass below. Finally Marya
pointed avidly to the opal ring.
Colina handed it over. The Indian girl slipped it on her own finger,
gazing at the effect with a kind of incredulous delight. The stolid
Cora looked on disapprovingly.
Suddenly Marya, without so much as a look at her companions, scrambled
to her feet, and hastened silently away through the trees. She was
clutching the ring finger with the other hand as if she feared to lose
it, finger and all. That was the last of Marya.
Sure enough before the sun went down, they saw a party of four Indians
issue out on the little plain from the direction of up river. Crossing
the grass and dismounting, they turned their horses out and cached
their saddles under the willows.
Then they proceeded afoot. Colina waited until she was sure there were
no more to follow; then mounting, she and Cora rode down to the trail.