ed of Spanish banners, and the blue
sea mirrors a bluer sky. We Ormonds came there from the Western Indies,
then drifted south, skirting the Matanzas to the sea islands on the
Halifax, where I was born, an Englishman on Spanish soil, and have lived
there, knowing no land but that of Florida, treading no city streets
save those walled lanes of ancient Augustine. All this vast North is new
to me, Dorothy; and, like our swamp-haunting Seminoles, my rustic's
instinct finds hostility in what is new and strange, and I forget my
breeding in this gray maze which half confuses, half alarms me."

"I am not offended," she said, smiling, "only I wonder what you find
distasteful here. Is it the solitude?"

"No, for we also have that."

"Is it us?"

"Not you, Dorothy, nor yet Ruyven, nor the others. Forget what I said.
As the Spaniards have it, 'Only a fool goes travelling,' and I'm not too
notorious for my wisdom, even in Augustine. If it be the custom of the
people here to go mad, I'll not sit in a corner croaking, 'Repent and
be wise!' If the Varicks and the Butlers set the pace, I promise you to
keep the quarry, Mistress Folly, in view--perhaps outfoot you all to
Bedlam!... But, cousin, if you, too, run this uncoupled race with the
pack, I mean to pace you, neck and neck, like a keen whip, ready to turn
and lash the first who interferes with you."

"With me?" she repeated, smiling. "Am I a youngster to be coddled and
protected? You have not seen our hunting. I lead, my friend;
you follow."

She unclasped her arms, which till now had held her bright head cradled,
and sat up, hands on her knees, grave as an Egyptian goddess
guarding tombs.

"I'll wager I can outrun you, outshoot you, outride you, throw you at
wrestle, cast the knife or hatchet truer than can you, catch more fish
than you--and bigger ones at that!"

With an impatient gesture, peculiarly graceful, like the half-salute of
a friendly swordsman ere you draw and stand on guard:

"Read the forest with me. I can outread you, sign for sign, track for
track, trail in and trail out! The forest is to me Te-ka-on-do-duk [the
place with a sign-post]. And when the confederacy speaks with five
tongues, and every tongue split into five forked dialects, I make no
answer in finger-signs, as needs must you, my cousin of the
Se-a-wan-ha-ka [the land of shells]. We speak to the Iroquois with our
lips, we People of the Morning. Our hands are for our rifles! Hiro [I
have spoke