You have father and mother awaiting in prayer your safe return to them yonder on the Maumee; while I,--I have no one even to ask how sad my fate may be.

Think you that because I am a girl I must therefore be all selfishness?
or that I would ever permit you thus to sacrifice yourself unnecessarily for me?
No, no, Monsieur! I will remain prisoner to Little Sauk, for my sacred word has been pledged; and you must go, because there are others to whom your life is of value.

Nor need you go empty-handed, for the one you have sought so far and long seems now ready enough to travel eastward with you." Scarcely had her voice ceased, leaving me struggling to find fit words to change her mad decision, when a rough hand flung back the entrance flap, and the naked body of an Indian, framed for a single instant against the light, lurched heavily through the opening.

Even that brief glimpse told me the man had been drinking to excess; while for the moment, as I huddled down closer behind my robes, I was unable to make out his identity.
"Where white woman ?" he ejaculated gruffly, as he paused, blinded by the darkness.

"Why she not come help me ?" His quick ear evidently caught the slight rustle of the girl's skirt as she rose hastily to her feet, for with a muttered Indian oath the savage lurched forward.