Part 9 (1/2)

”Aren't they lovely?” reiterated the girl Her anger had passed She was all sain

”Indian,” said Seth, with a curious click of the tongue, which Rosebud was quick to interpret into an expression of scorn

”Yes,” she exclai ”And I like Indian things, and I like Indian people, and I like Little Black Fox He's nice, and isn't always sneering And I shall see the yourself”

She walked off toward the house without the least regard for the potatoes, which now suffered indiscrih, but she had less dignity than she thought, for she stuht into the house and up to her roo herself upon her bed and cry, as she probably intended to do Three large parcels occupied its entire narrow li her all happiness on her birthday, and the biggest of the three was fro-chair, and, instead of an angry outburst, she shed a few quiet, happy tears

Meanwhile Seth continued his work as though nothing had interrupted hi his way to the house, that he happened to observe the newspaper which Rosebud had left lying a furrows and picked it up

Newspapers always interested hilish paper And frolanced at the date, and saw that was nearly a month old, and, at the same time, he saw that it was addressed to Nevil Steyne, and beside the address was a note in blue pencil, ”Page 3”

His curiosity was aroused, and he turned over to the page indicated There was a long paragraph marked by four blue crosses It was headed--

”The Estate of the Missing Colonel Raynor”

Seth read the first few lines casually Then, as he went on, a curious look crept into his dark eyes, his clean-shaven face took on an expression of strained interest, and his lips closed until they were lost in a straight line which dren at the corners of his mouth He read on to the end, and then quietly folded up the paper, and stuffed it into the bosom of his shi+rt Once he turned and looked away in the direction in which Nevil Steyne's hut lay tucked away on the river bank Then he shouldered his hoe and strolled leisurely homeward

CHAPTER VII

AN INDIAN POW-WOW

Nevil Steyne was indifferent to such blessings as a refreshi+ng thunder-shower at sundown on a hot summer's day It is doubtful if he would have ad the parching heat of the day He had no crops to think of, which h the brush on the north bank of the White River, in the direction of the log bridge, with the dripping trees splashi+ng all round hi with the heavy, wet loa His vindictiveness was in no way half-lad of it, and hen in direst necessity, occasionally remembered to offer up prayers for it

This man had no love for the woods; no love even for the prairie, or his life on it He lived a grudging existence Froive him real joy But there is no doubt but that he had purpose of a sort which had hbors With hi else, and made existence tolerable

There was purpose in his movements now He could just as easily have h the open, but he chose the woods, and put up with the hile he railed at it And there was soave to his journey a suggestion of furtiveness

At the bridge he paused, gave a quick look round, and then crossed it more rapidly still For at this point he was in full view of the prairie Once on the Indian Reservation, which began beyond the bridge, he again took to the cover the park-like land afforded hiain in the open until he had passed the Mission and the Agency

Once clear of these, however, he gave noopen paths in the full, bright evening light He passed in and out a a word here and there to thethe more frequent of the two, for the Indian is a silentwas too familiar to cause such a man as he any unusual interest Perhaps it was because he felt he had a certain underhand poith these people; like a person who loses interest in the thing which he has mastered Certain it is that the busy horiainst thehs of adjacent trees The bucks huddled, in spite of the war indolently at their squaws pounding the early berries into a sort of ings, ave no heed to the swar round the tepees, whooping in i thes, which, from their earliest years, they love to persecute to the limits of the poor beasts' endurance The tote for hi froht have been rabbit skins for all he thought of them

Just now his purpose was to reach the house of Little Black Fox, and this he ca; next to the Mission and Agency it was by far the largest house on the Reservation It was built of logs and thatch and plaster, and backed into a thick clump of shadyWolf had always been content to live in a tepee He was an older type of chief The son iven to display

Nevil raised the latch of the door and walked in, and his ed visitor He entered the spacious living-rooathered there He walked to a certain vacant place, and sat down upon the mud floor It was at once plain that he had been expected More, it was evident that he belonged by right to that gathering

Despite the display in the dimensions of Little Black Fox's house the interior revealed the old savage There was nothing civilized about the council-chas, without which no Indian can exist in suh a square chie circle the chief's councilors sat perched upon their haunches and swathed in their blankets There was not a seat or table there They sat in their councils as their forefathers had done before the but his youth to distinguish him from those ere his subjects

The debate proceeded in its spasmodic fashi+on There was no haste, no heat like in the debates of civilized folk Each ht have served as an exaislatures Nevil spoke like the rest in their low, ue

Whenever he spoke it was noticeable that the great, wild eyes of the chief were turned upon him with interest But even he seemed a mere unit in the debate, no more and no less, unless it were that Little Black Fox was more influenced by what he said than by as said by the others

At length, well on into the night, thedrew to a close The business in hand had been threshed out and a decision arrived at The warriors and the men of ”medicine” filed slowly out Even in this there was a certain formality and precedence Each h the door And no tent out together