ell
him the secret I have. I told him I could not do it."

"You have never told me that secret."

"But I will. Always I have intended to do so."

"When you are ready. But go on."

"Then he told me that if I would tell him the secret he would marry me
himself." The Indian girl flushed. "You know, sister, that it is a great
thing for an Indian girl to marry a white man."

"But you are already the wife of Running Bear," said Stella, who was
puzzled.

"That is the Indian marriage, and soon broken. But when I told him I
didn't want to marry him, he got very angry. I told him I was going to
stay with you, and he said that if I did I would be killed with all the
rest of you; that it was coming, and that Mr. Strong had many enemies
who were stronger than all of you."

"Did he hint when this was going to take place?"

"Yes, when we get to the Far North."

"Did he say anything else?"

"He told me that if I didn't go with him to-night he would kill me when
I slept."

"We shall see about that," said Stella spiritedly. "But why is all this
fuss being made about you and your secret? It must be something very
important."

"Yes, to the white man, but not to the Indian."

"Then why did Running Bear shoot you because you would not tell him?"

"He wanted to sell the secret to a white man for whisky."

"Who is the white man? Do you know?"

"Yes. But I do not like to tell."

"You have told me so much, you must tell me the rest."

"The white man is a soldier at the fort."

"A common soldier?"

"No, a chief, who carries a sword."

"Oh, an officer. What is his name?"

"He is called Barrows."

"Oh! And he offered Running Bear whisky for your secret? That is bad."

"Yes. Chief Barrows wants the secret, and he has sent the man who drives
cows here to make me tell it."

"Singing Bird, you must tell me the secret."

"I will."

Stella settled herself to hear the Indian girl's story.

"It began when I was a little child," said Singing Bird. "One time when
my father's tribe was hunting, we came to a place where a lot of white
men were digging in the sands of the big, muddy river."

"Was that the Missouri?"

"The white men call it so. We camped beside them, and one day I saw them
washing out of the sand little grains of yellow metal, which they
thought much of, although the Indians would rather have iron, the black
metal."

"They were hunting for gold."

"Yes. In their talk with my father they said that somew