had found
good repose and had been comforted by the pleasant music.

"And when will the White Queen lead us against our enemies--the men
of her own color, but not of her kind?" inquired the Chief with
child-like eagerness.

Pauline hesitated an instant after the interpreter repeated the
question. Then, recovering herself, she answered gravely:

"Today, Red Snake, the Queen rests from her long journey out of the
Happy Hunting Ground. Tomorrow also. Upon the next day, perhaps, she
will lead the warriors."

The little interpreter's keen eyes flashed understandingly as he left
out the word "perhaps" in repeating her answer.

Red Snake was elated. He made profound salutations, promised that the
war party would do her honor, and hastened away to announce the news.

The interpreter lingered, pretending to smooth the door rug. He looked
up suddenly and his eyes met Pauline's with an expression of friendly
interest. Instinctively she accepted the tacitly offered friendship.

"You are a white man--you speak English," she said.

"Part white--part red. You speak all white," he added
significantly.

"Of course," she whispered, stepping to his side. "I am not a Queen--
not a Spirit. I do not know why they believe I am. But I must get
away--to Rockvale, to Mr. Haines's ranch, to the white people
anywhere. You will help me?"

He looked at her pityingly now. He had believed that she was an
accomplice of the medicine man in a shrewd fraud, and he had merely
wanted to share the joke, risky as it was. To find her an accidental
and unwilling monarch struck him dumb.

"That is very hard," he said slowly. "Look!"

He parted the folds of the teepee door curtain so that she looked out
toward the village. Three women sat next the door and beyond were
groups of braves, still in their war paint, some conversing, some
stalwart and still. They seemed to be doing nothing in particular.

"Well?" questioned Pauline.

He led her across the teepee to a narrow slit in the rear curtain.
Through this she peered as she had peered through the door and saw
exactly what she had seen though the door--women crouching at their
tasks in the near foreground, an armed circle of warriors beyond.
Now she understood.

"I am a prisoner then?"

"They will guard you night and day."

"Why?"

"It was prophesied that a Great White Queen would come to lead them to
battle. You have come, as the prophet said, and you have promised to
le