Our case already appears desperate." "Has something new occurred," I questioned anxiously, "that makes you more alarmed ?" Her eyes, grown strangely serious once more, swept our faces.
"You may neither of you comprehend this in its full meaning as clearly as I do," she returned gravely, "for I am frontier-bred, and have known the Indian character from childhood.

We have long been acquainted, in my father's family, with many of the chiefs and warriors now encamped around us.

We have traded in their villages, lived with them in their smoke-stained tepees on the great plains, and trusted them as they showed faith in us.

You, I learn," and she looked at me more intently, "were at my father's house no later than last night.

In spite of rumors of war and tightly guarded Fort-gates, you found his door wide open to whosoever might approach, with never a dog to bark at an intruder, be he white or red.