ge, fierce pride in her look. She bowed to Cadillac. "I am
glad you told me this, monsieur." Then she turned to me. "Shall we
go?"

But I looked over her head at the commandant. "It will be useless to
keep the tribes in waiting," I warned.

I went to Onanguisse, the woman on my arm. "My heart is at your feet,"
I said to him. "My blood belongs to you, and my sword!'"

He looked at the woman and at me, and he spoke thoughtfully. "When I
found her in my lodge we had no speech in common, but I understood. I
brought her to you. Now keep what you have. The best fisherman may
let a fish slip once from his net by accident, but his wits are fat if
he lets it go a second time."

I knew he was troubled. He saw no possession in my face, and he
thought me weak.

And then I took the woman to Cadillac's tent.

CHAPTER XXXII

I TELL THE WOMAN

Cadillac's tent held a couch of brush covered with skins, and I led the
woman to it and bade her sit. Then I moved away and stood by the rough
table.

"Madame," I said, "I have something that I must tell you. I"----

She rose from the couch and came toward me. "Will you wait?" she
interrupted. "May I speak first?" She stood beside me, and I saw how
thin her hand was as it rested on the table. She had been through
danger, starvation. I found myself shaking.

"You went alone through the woods!" I cried, and my voice was hoarse,
so that I had to stop and control it. "Did you suffer? You must have
suffered, madame?"

She smiled up at me. "Monsieur, do not grieve. It is all over. And
the greatest suffering was in my mind. I feared that you would think I
disobeyed you."

I clenched my hands. "Madame, you must not say such things to me."

But she touched her fingers to mine. "Monsieur, I beg you. Hear me
out before you speak. As to my coming here, I promised you that I
would not turn westward,--but I could not help it."

"I know, madame."

"My cousin--he was--he was a spy, after all. He deceived us both. He
was carrying peace belts. But--but I am sure that he had moments of
saying to himself that he would refuse to act the spy. When he lied to
me, and told me that he had no purpose but my safety, I think that he
thought he spoke the truth."

"I know, madame."

"But when--when I saw what he had done, when I saw that we were going
west, I warned him that I would leave him. I told him, too, that he
was going to his death. He did not believe