me I interpreted them aloud, and she would nod or
shake her head according to whether I was right or wrong. I had to try
one question after another until I hit on the one she could answer. In
this way little by little I built up her story.
"The next day we continued on the prairie. The sky was heavily
overclouded, and there were flurries of snow. We were lost for several
hours, until the sun came out again. Our food was almost gone, but I
managed to shoot a rabbit.
"The horses were very tired. Whenever we stopped I talked to Nesis.
We stayed up most of that night. It was too cold to sleep. By the end
of the second day I knew everything she had to tell me."
Colina drank some water and went on. "Nesis's story begins a year ago.
In the middle of the winter my father was accustomed to send Gordon
Strange with an outfit to the Kakisa River to trade with the tribe and
bring back the fur.
"While there he lived in a little log shack overlooking the Indian
village. Nesis said it was Watusk's custom to go up to the shack every
night and the two men would talk. She knew that they talked English
together, and she used to steal up after Watusk and listen outside
through a chink between the logs."
Every eye in the court-room was turned on Gordon Strange. The
half-breed made marks with a pencil on a pad and tried to call up the
old modest, deprecating smile. But an extraordinary ashy tint crept
under his swarthy skin.
In spite of himself, his eyes darted furtively to measure the distance
to the door. There were half a thousand people between; moreover, the
doors were closed and guarded by six policemen.
Colina carefully avoided glancing in Strange's direction.
"At that time Nesis had no idea of using what she learned from their
talk," she went on. "She merely wished to hear English spoken, so that
she would not forget what her father had taught her. Nesis attached a
mysterious virtue to the ability to speak English. It was a kind of
fetish with her.
"She believed that her father's ability to speak English had threatened
Watusk's power in the tribe, and that Watusk, on that account, had had
her father put out of the way. Therefore she kept it a secret that she
could speak it, too.
"Nesis said that all of Mr. Strange's and Watusk's talk was against the
white people. She said they used to discuss how the whites could be
driven out of the country. She said that Mr. Strange used to tell
Watusk ab
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