l.

"Oh, how dare you! How dare you! You are talking of my Wahneenah; of
selling her, of selling her like a pig or a horse. Even you, Mrs.
Jordan, though she nursed your little one till it got well, and only
told you the truth: that if you'd look after it more and visit less it
wouldn't have the croup so often. You didn't like to hear her say it,
and you do not love her. But she is good, good, good! There is nobody
so good as she is. And no harm shall come to her. I tell you. I say
it. I, the Sun Maid, whom the Great Spirit sent to her out of the sky.
I will go and tell her at once. She shall run away. She shall not be
sold--never, never, never!"

The women remained dumfounded where she left them, watching her skim
the distance between cabin and wigwam, scarcely touching the earth
with her bare feet in her haste to warn her friend of this new danger
which threatened her and her race. For it was quite true, this matter
that had been discussed. The Indians had given so much trouble in the
sparsely settled country that the authorities had offered a price for
their capture; and it was this price which money-loving Mercy coveted.

Like a flash of a bird's wing, Kitty had darted into the lodge and
out again, with an agony of fear upon her features; and then she saw
Gaspar beckoning.

As she reached him he motioned silence and drew her away into the
shadow of the forest, that just there fringed the clearing behind the
tepee.

"But--Wahneenah's gone!" she whispered.

"Don't worry. She's safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you
remember the horse-racing last year?"

"Course. I remember I got so excited over the horses, and so sorry for
the boys that rode and didn't win. But what of that? Other Mother has
gone!"

"I tell you she's safe. Safer than you or me. Listen. Abel says _we_,
too, will have to ride a race to-day! On Tempest and Snowbird. Even if
we win, the money will belong to him; and if we lose--he's going to
sell one of our horses to pay his loss. I heard him say it."

"But they are ours!"

"He's kept them all these years, he says. He claims the right to do
with them as he chooses. Bad as that is, it isn't the worst. Though
Wahneenah is safe, still she will not be always. You and I will have
to ride this race--to save her life, or liberty!"

"What do--you--mean?"

"I haven't time to explain. Only--will you do as I say? Exactly?"

"Of course." Kitty looked inquiringly into her foster-brother's f