I could scarcely make out the dimmest shadow of them in the dense gloom, yet I seemed to know that he had grasped her roughly, though not the slightest sound of fear or pain came from her lips.
"Ugh! better come!" he muttered, a veiled savage threat growling in his tone.

"You my squaw; cook in my lodge; get meal now." "But where?
and how ?" she asked, her voice trembling perceptibly, yet striving to placate him by a seeming willingness to obey.

"I have nothing here to cook, nor have I fire." "Indian squaw no talk back!" he retorted angrily.

"This way I show white squaw to mind chief!" I heard plainly the brutal blow he struck her, though even as she reeled back she managed to stifle the scream upon her lips, so that it was barely audible.

With one bound I was over the barrier of robes and clutching with tingling fingers for the brute.