ground. No more running the gauntlet for him that day. Indeed it
required protracted application of the best Indian skill to revive him
so that he could fairly be called a living man. There had been no
dangerous concussion, however, and on the following morning camp was
broken.

Beverley, sore, haggard, forlornly disheveled, had his arms bound again
and was made to march apace with his nimble enemies, who set out
swiftly eastward, their disappointment at having their sport cut short,
although bitter enough, not in the least indicated by any facial
expression or spiteful act.

Was it really a strange thing, or was it not, that Beverley's mind now
busied itself unceasingly with the thought that Long-Hair had Alice's
picture in his pouch? One might find room for discussion of a cerebral
problem like this; but our history cannot be delayed with analyses and
speculations; it must run its direct course unhindered to the end.
Suffice it to record that, while tramping at Long-Hair's side and
growing more and more desirous of seeing the picture again, Beverley
began trying to converse with his taciturn captor. He had a
considerable smattering of several Indian dialects, which he turned
upon Long-Hair to the best of his ability, but apparently without
effect. Nevertheless he babbled at intervals, always upon the same
subject and always endeavoring to influence that huge, stolid,
heartless savage in the direction of letting him see again the child
face of the miniature.

A stone, one of our travel-scarred and mysterious western granite
bowlders brought from the far north by the ancient ice, would show as
much sympathy as did the face of Long-Hair. Once in a while he gave
Beverley a soulless glance and said "damn" with utter indifference.
Nothing, however, could quench or even in the slightest sense allay the
lover's desire. He talked of Alice and the locket with constantly
increasing volubility, saying over and over phrases of endearment in a
half-delirious way, not aware that fever was fermenting his blood and
heating his brain. Probably he would have been very ill but for the
tremendous physical exercise forced upon him. The exertion kept him in
a profuse perspiration and his robust constitution cast off the
malarial poison. Meantime he used every word and phrase, every grunt
and gesture of Indian dialect that he could recall, in the iterated and
reiterated attempt to make Long-Hair understand what he wanted.

When night c