He took her fingers in his great hand, and held them with a strong, warm pressure.

Strangely thrilled, she looked up at Wingenund.

His somber eyes, fixed piercingly on the forest, and his dark stern face, were, as always, inscrutable.

No compassion shone there; no emotion unbefitting a chieftain would ever find expression in that cold face, but Nell felt a certain tenderness in this Indian, a response in his great heart.

Felt it so surely, so powerfully that she leaned her head against him.