" Her hand pinched his arm. "Did you--kill him?" she
breathed.
"No. I broke off a leg from the table and stunned him."
"I'm glad," she said, and snuggled close to him shiveringly. "I'm glad,
_Sakewawin_."
In the darkness that was gathering about them it was impossible for him
not to take her in his arms. He held her close, bowing his head so that
for an instant her warm face touched his own; and in those moments while
they waited for the gloom to thicken he told her in a low voice what he
had learned from Brokaw. She grew tense against him as he continued, and
when he assured her he no longer had a doubt her mother was alive, and
that she was the woman he had met on the coach, a cry rose out of her
breast. She was about to speak when loud footsteps in the hall made her
catch her breath, and her fingers clung more tightly at his shoulders.
"It is time," she whispered. "We must go!"
She ran from him quickly and from under the cot where the Indian lay
dragged forth a pack. He could not see plainly what she was doing now.
In a moment she had put a rifle in his hands.
"It belonged to Nisikoos," she said. "There are six shots in it, and
here are all the cartridges I have."
He took them in his hand and counted them as he dropped them into his
pocket.
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