eaking down
the trader's will. Leaning over her shoulder to stare down into the
terrified eyes of his victim the chief warned:

"Unless the settlers give themselves up it shall be as I have said. It
must be before the sun goes down. Tell her all I have said."

With that he dragged me back to my tree. For a few minutes the chief's
horrible threat dulled my mind to the point of stupidity. He waited for me
to collect my thoughts. At last I managed to ask:

"What you said back there was a trick of course? You would never torture
the daughter of the Pack-Horse-Man?"

"Unless he does as told she must die," he calmly assured me. "She will die
soon anyway. She is not strong enough to live our life, like the blue-eyed
squaw over there." And he glanced toward Cousin's sister. "Her children
would be neither red nor white. They would have squaw-hearts. If the
trader does not speak words that will bring the settlers from their cabins
with empty hands she shall be tortured until he does speak."

I do not remember falling, yet I found myself on the ground, and Black
Hoof had departed. In his place stood Ward, staring at me curiously.

"You went down as if hit with an ax," he grunted.

"My legs are weak from hard travel and poor food," I said.

Patricia Dale passed quite close to us, a gourd of water in her hands. She
was carrying it to her father. Ward exclaimed in English:

"What a woman!"

His brawny figure seemed to dilate and he made a queer hissing noise as he
looked after her. Turning to me he hoarsely said:

"I was born white. It's her blood that calls me. When I saw her in Salem I
said I would have her for my squaw if I could get her and her fool of a
father into the mountains."

My mental paralysis lifted.

"Is she promised to you?" I asked.

"I am to have any two prisoners to do with as I like," he answered.
"Catahecassa said that when I started to enter the villages beyond the
mountains to get news. There was little chance of bringing any whites
back, but if I did I was to have two of them."

"Then you had better remind your chief of his promise," I warned. "He says
he will torture the girl before her father's eyes if the father does not
help in betraying the settlers."

"Ugh! I have his promise. He dare not break it."

The girl would kill herself before submitting to Ward's savage caresses.
She would go mad if forced to witness the torture of her father. I had
seized upon Ward's passion as a means of ga