and
that will mark the crash of your reign of tyranny. 'Safety first' is
your slogan, and your Indians may starve while you murder men." The
girl paused and suddenly became conscious that MacNair was regarding
her with a strange look in his eyes. And at his next words she could
scarcely believe her ears.

"Will you care for my Indians?"

The question staggered her. "What!" she managed to gasp.

"Just what I said," answered MacNair gruffly. "Will you care for my
Indians until such time as I shall return to them--until I have ridded
the North of Lapierre?"

"Do you mean," cried the astonished girl, "will I care for your
Indians--the same Indians who attacked my school--who only last night
fought like fiends among themselves, and burned their own homes?"

"Just that!" answered MacNair. "The Indian who warned me of Lapierre's
plot told me, also, of the arrival of your supplies--sufficient, he
said, to feed the whole North. You will not lose by it. Name your own
price, and I shall pay whatever you ask."

"Price!" flashed the girl. "Do you think I would take your gold--the
gold that has been wrung from the hearts' blood of your Indians?"

"On your own terms, then," answered MacNair. "Will you take them?
Surely this arrangement should be to your liking. Did you not tell me
yourself, upon the occasion of our first meeting, that you intended to
use every means in your power to induce my Indians to attend your
school? That you would teach them that they are free? That they owe
allegiance and servitude to no man? That you would educate and show
them they were being robbed and cheated and forced into serfdom? That
you intended to appeal to their better natures, to their manhood and
womanhood? I think those were your words. Did you not say that? And
did you mean it? Or was it the idle boast of an angry woman?"

Chloe interrupted him. "Yes, I said that, and I meant it! And I mean
it now!"

"You have your chance," growled MacNair, "I impose no restrictions. I
shall command them to obey you; even to attend your school, if you
wish! You will hardly have time to do them much harm. As I told you,
the North is not ready for your education. But I know that you are
honest. You are a fool, and the time is not far distant when you
yourself will realize this; when you will learn that you have become
the unwitting dupe of one of the shrewdest and most diabolical
scoundrels that ever drew breath. Again I tell