tened her.

Old Hagar spat viciously at them both, and shrilled vituperative
sentences--in her own tongue fortunately; else the things she said
must have brought swift retribution. And as if she did not care for
consequences and wanted to make her words carry a definite sting, she
stopped, grinned maliciously, and spoke the choppy dialect of her tribe.

"Yo' tellum me shont-isham. Mebbyso yo' tellum yo' no ketchum
Squaw-talk-far-off in sagebrush, all time Saunders go dead! Me ketchum
hair--Squaw-talk-far-off hair. You like for see, you thinkum me tell
lies?"

From under her blanket she thrust forth a greasy brown hand, and shook
triumphantly before them a tangled wisp of woman's hair--the hair of
Miss Georgie, without a doubt. There was no gainsaying that color and
texture. She looked full at Evadna.

"Yo' like see, me show whereum walk," she said grimly. "Good Injun boot
make track, Squaw-talk-far-off little shoe make track. Me show, yo'
thinkum mebbyso me tell lie. Stoppum in sagebrush, ketchum hair. Me
ketchum knife--Good Injun knife, mebbyso." Revenge mastered cupidity,
and she produced that also, and held it up where they could all see.

Evadna looked and winced.

"I don't believe a word you say," she declared stubbornly. "You STOLE
that knife. I suppose you also stole the hair. You can't MAKE me believe
a thing like that!"

"Squaw-talk-far-off run, run heap fas', get home quick. Me seeum, Viney
seeum, Lucy seeum." Hagar pointed to each as she named her, and waited
until they give a confirmatory nod. The two squaws gazed steadily at the
ground, and she grunted and ignored them afterward, content that they
bore witness to her truth in that one particular.

"Squaw-talk-far-off sabe Good Injun killum Man-that-coughs, mebbyso,"
she hazarded, watching Good Indian's face cunningly to see if the guess
struck close to the truth.

"If you've said all you want to say, you better go," Good Indian told
her after a moment of silence while they glared at each other. "I won't
touch you--because you're such a devil I couldn't stop short of killing
you, once I laid my hands on you."

He stopped, held his lips tightly shut upon the curses he would not
speak, and Evadna felt his biceps tauten under her fingers as if he
were gathering himself for a lunge at the old squaw. She looked up
beseechingly into his face, and saw that it was sharp and stern, as
it had been that morning when the men had first been discovered in the