out. But after that the years sped swiftly in
her mind until the day when the little boy--a man grown--came to save
her tribe, and her own life, and the life of Sun Cloud, and of Slim
Buck her husband. Since then prosperity and happiness had been her lot.
The spirits had been good. They had not let her grow old, but had kept
her still beautiful. And Sun Cloud, her little daughter, was beautiful,
and Slim Buck was more than ever her god among men, and her people were
happy. And all this she owed to the man who was sleeping under the
gloom of the sky outside, the hunted man, the outlaw, "the little boy
grown up"--Jolly Roger McKay.

As she listened, and stared up at the smoke hole, strange spirits were
whispering to her, and Yellow Bird's blood ran a little faster and her
eyes grew bigger and brighter in the darkness. They seemed to be
accusing her. They told her it was because of her that Roger McKay had
come in that winter of starvation and death, and had robbed and almost
killed, that she and Slim Buck and little Sun Cloud might live. That
was the beginning, and the thrill of it had got into the blood of
Neekewa, her "little white brother grown up." And now he was out there,
alone with his dog in the night--and the red-coated avengers of the law
were hunting him. They wanted him for many things, but chiefly for the
killing of a man.

Yellow Bird sat up, her little hands clenched about the thick braid of
Sun Cloud's hair. She had conjured with the spirits and had let the
soul go out of her body that she might learn the future for Neekewa,
her white brother. And they had told her that Roger McKay had done
right to think of killing.

Their voices had whispered to her that he would not suffer more than he
had already suffered--and that in the Country Beyond he would find Nada
the white girl, and happiness, and peace. Yellow Bird did not
disbelieve. Her faith was illimitable. The spirits would not lie. But
the unrest of the night was eating at her heart. She tried to lift
herself to the whisperings above the tepee top. But they were
unintelligible, like many voices mingling, and with them came a dull
fear into her soul.

She put out a hand, as if to rouse Slim Buck. Then she drew it back,
and placed Sun Cloud's braid away from her. She rose to her feet so
quietly that even in their restlessness they did not fully awake.
Through the tepee door she went, and stood up straight in the night, as
if now she might hear more c