He was lonely without Yellow Bird, and the signal fire meant she would be with him again soon.

Jolly Roger walked swiftly over the white beach.
Again he tried to tell himself what folly it all was, and that he was answering the signal-fire only to humor Yellow Bird and Slim Buck.

But words, even spoken half aloud, did not quiet the eager beating of his heart.
Not until he was very near did Yellow Bird come out of the tepee.

And it was then Jolly Roger stopped short, a gasp on his lips.

She was changed.
Her radiant hair was still down, polished smooth; but her face was whiter than he had ever seen it, and drawn and pinched almost as in the days of the famine.