eye--it all time look around. Oh, much fear. Then one day
she not wake. She die all up."

"And he?"

"Oh, him come all time. Him sit and mak' talk to her. I not know. Only
him talk. Him go--she weep. Him go--she watch all scare. So it come she
die all up."

Keeko pointed at the cross at the head of the grave.

"He set that up? Yes?"

"Him mak' him totem."

Keeko stood staring at the cross for some moments. Then she moved over
to it and grasped it. It stirred in its setting. Then she left it, and
returned to Lu-cana.

"He dared to set that up," she cried bitterly. "'In loving memory.'" She
read the words before the name of her mother. "He dared to set
up--that?"

Her eyes shone with a fierce light as she turned and looked into the
squaw's face.

"Yes. Him set 'em up."

Lu-cana failed to understand that which lay at the back of Keeko's eyes.
She could not read the words on the totem. She did not know their
meaning when she heard them. All she knew was that the white man had
done this thing.

Keeko pointed at it.

"Guess I'll make a new--totem," she said, in a tone that was only cold
and hard. "And we'll set it up. You and me, Lu-cana. And that one--that
one," she repeated with bitter emphasis, "we'll break it, we'll smash
it, and we'll burn it in the cook stove till there's nothing left."

* * * * *

Keeko remained for two months at the fort. And the length of her stay
was the result of careful calculation, and the necessity which her final
break from association with her step-father demanded. Then, too, there
was the season to consider. Before she set out on her journey to Seal
Bay the fierce winter of Unaga must have completely closed down. No
storm or cold had terror for her. All she required was the
case-hardening of the world, which would leave an iron surface upon
which the dog trains could travel.

During those two months the force of Keeko's character developed with
giant strides. She was alone, utterly alone. Her whole life depended
upon her own powers to carry out the plans which had seemed almost
simple while her mother was still alive. Now everything had suddenly
changed. Inevitably, had there been a shadow of weakness in the girl it
must have found her out, and tripped her into some pitfall, floundering.
But there was no such weakness.

From the first moment the enormous change wrought by her mother's death
left her keenly understanding. Until the final b