第12章

"Come on then, Mandy, we shall have to hurry.""No, you go.I'll wait."

"I won't have that.It will be dark soon and I can't leave you here alone with--""Nonsense! This poor boy is faint with hunger and pain.I'll feed him while you're gone.Get me afresh pail of water and I can do for myself.""Well," replied her husband dubiously, "I'll get you some wood and--""Come, now," replied Mandy impatiently, "who taught you to cut wood? I can get my own wood.The main thing is to get away and get back.This boy needs shelter.How long have you been here?"she inquired of the Indian.

The boy opened his eyes and swung his arm twice from east to west, indicating the whole sweep of the sky.

"Two days?"

He nodded.

"You must be starving.Want to eat?"

"Good!"

"Hurry, then, Allan, with the water.By the time this lad has been fed you will be back."It was not long before Allan was back with the water.

"Now, then," he said to the Indian, "where's your camp?"The Indian with his knife drew a line upon the ground."River," he said.Another line parallel, "Trail." Then, tracing a branching line from the latter, turning sharply to the right, "Big Hill," he indicated."Down--down." Then, running the line a little farther, "Here camp.""I know the spot," cried Allan."Well, I'm off.Are you quite sure, Mandy, you don't mind?""Run off with you and get back soon.Go--good-by! Oh! Stop, you foolish boy! Aren't you ashamed of yourself before--?"Cameron laughed in happy derision.

"Ashamed? No, nor before his whole tribe." He swung himself on his pony and was off down the trail at a gallop.

"You' man?" inquired the Indian lad.

"Yes," she said, "my man," pride ringing in her voice.

"Huh! Him Big Chief?"

"Oh, no! Yes." She corrected herself hastily."Big Chief.

Ranch, you know--Big Horn Ranch."

"Huh!" He closed his eyes and sank back again upon the ground.

"You're faint with hunger, poor boy," said Mandy.She hastily cut a large slice of bread, buttered it, laid upon it some bacon and handed it to him.

"Here, take this in the meantime," she said."I'll have your tea in a jiffy."The boy took the bread, and, faint though he was with hunger, sternly repressing all sign of haste, he ate it with grave deliberation.

In a few minutes more the tea was ready and Mandy brought him a cup.

"Good!" he said, drinking it slowly.

"Another?" she smiled.

"Good!" he replied, drinking the second cup more rapidly.

"Now, we'll have some fish," cried Mandy cheerily, "and then you'll be fit for your journey home."In twenty minutes more she brought him a frying pan in which two large beautiful trout lay, browned in butter.Mandy caught the wolf-like look in his eyes as they fell upon the food.She cut several thick slices of bread, laid them in the pan with the fish and turned her back upon him.The Indian seized the bread, and, noting that he was unobserved, tore it apart like a dog and ate ravenously, the fish likewise, ripping the flesh off the bones and devouring it like some wild beast.

"There, now," she said, when he had finished, "you've had enough to keep you going.Indeed, you have had all that's good for you.We don't want any fever, so that will do."Her gestures, if not her words, he understood, and again as he watched her there gleamed in his eyes that dumb animal look of gratitude.

"Huh!" he grunted, slapping himself on the chest and arms."Good!

Me strong! Me sleep." He lay back upon the ground and in half a dozen breaths was dead asleep, leaving Mandy to her lonely watch in the gathering gloom of the falling night.

The silence of the woods deepened into a stillness so profound that a dead leaf, fluttering from its twig and rustling to the ground, made her start in quick apprehension.

"What a fool I am!" she muttered angrily.She rose to pile wood upon the fire.At her first movement the Indian was broad awake and half on his knees with his knife gleaming in his hand.As his eyes fell upon the girl at the fire, with a grunt, half of pain and half of contempt, he sank back again upon the ground and was fast asleep before the fire was mended, leaving Mandy once more to her lonely watch.

"I wish he would come," she muttered, peering into the darkening woods about her.A long and distant howl seemed to reply to her remark.

It was answered by a series of short, sharp yelps nearer at hand.

"Coyote," she said disdainfully, for she had learned to despise the cowardly prairie wolf.

But again that long distant howl.In spite of herself she shuddered.That was no coyote, but a gray timber wolf.

"I wish Allan would come," she said again, thinking of wakening the Indian.But her nurse's instincts forbade her breaking his heavy sleep.