. Afterward, when he rode home and
found that his daughter and Mr. Gledware were to be married, he made up
his mind that if you succeeded in keeping hidden from Red Kimball and
his band, you would be the one to take care of me. And when two years
had passed and you were still safe, he brought me to you! What a glad
day that was!

"When Red Feather's daughter wanted Mr. Gledware's life saved, it was
so. And Red Feather gave them a great stretch of land, and Mr.
Gledware got to be important in the tribe; he made himself one of them,
and they thought him greater than their own chief. At the end of a few
years, there was the great agitation over the boomers coming to the
Oklahoma country, and much talk of the land being thrown open. The
Indians didn't want it done, and they joined together to send some one
to Washington to address congress on the subject. Mr. Gledware was
such an orator that they thought him irresistible, so they selected
him, and, for his fee, they collected over fifty thousand dollars.
Think of it!

"Of course he didn't go near Washington. It was the time of Kansas
City's great boom. He went there and bought up city lots, and sold out
at the right time, and that's why he's rich today. In the meantime,
the Indians didn't know what had become of him, and Red Feather's
daughter died from shame over her desertion--just pined away and hid
herself from her people till she was starved to death. That's why Red
Feather meant to kill Mr. Gledware.

"When he had finished, Red Feather bent over Mr. Gledware and said to
him, 'Me speak all true? Tell Lahoma--me speak all true?'

"And the man whispered feebly, 'It is all true--don't kill me, for
God's sake, don't kill me--save me, Lahoma, MY CHILD!'

"I begged him not to kill the man. Red Feather said to me, 'You hear
how he treat my daughter! You my friend, Lahoma. You know all that,
and yet you tell me not kill him?'

"'I say not kill him.'

"'Then you hate my daughter?'

"'My mother could marry him, Red Feather, and I can beg for his life.'

"He shook his head. 'No, Lahoma, he die; he leave my daughter to die
and this hand do to him what he do to her.'

"I never felt so helpless, so horribly weak and useless! There I was,
only a few yards away, and the man was my stepfather; and his enemy was
our friend. And not far away stood the man's big house filled with
guests--among them strong men who could have overpowered dozens of
Indians. But