But I trust you, and not the word of this white man.

Pledge me not to go with him, and I will believe you." She glanced first at me, then back into the swarthy, merciless face.
Her cheeks were white and her lips trembled, yet her eyes remained clear and calm.
"I give you my word, Sau-ga-nash," she said quietly.

"While I am held as prisoner by Little Sauk, I will not go away with John Wayland." Little as I believed these words to be true at the time, the sound of them so dulled me with apprehension that I could only stare at her in speechless amazement.

It seemed to me then as if the power of reason had deserted me, as if my brain had been so burdened as to refuse its office.

I recall that Toinette almost compelled me to lie down against the farther side of the lodge, placing a pile of skins in front of me and assuming a position herself where she could occasionally reach across the barrier and touch me with her soft hand.