TIVITY 246

XXI. SAM IS LATE 258

XXII. MUSCLE AND NERVE 267

XXIII. MAHOOLEY'S INNINGS 278

XXIV. ON THE SPIRIT RIVER 290

XXV. CONCLUSION 304

* * * * *

THE HUNTRESS

CHAPTER I

THE FISH-EATERS' VILLAGE

From within the teepee of Charley Whitefish issued the sounds of a
family brawl. It was of frequent occurrence in this teepee. Men at the
doors of other lodges, engaged in cleaning their guns, or in other
light occupations suitable to the manly dignity, shrugged with strong
scorn for the man who could not keep his women in order. With the
shrugs went warning glances toward their own laborious spouses.

Each man's scorn might well have been mitigated with thankfulness that
he was not cursed with a daughter like Charley's Bela. Bela was a
firebrand in the village, a scandal to the whole tribe. Some said she
was possessed of a devil; according to others she was a girl born with
the heart of a man.

This phenomenon was unique in their experience, and being a simple
folk they resented it. Bela refused to accept the common lot of women.
It was not enough for her that such and such a thing had always been
so in the tribe.

She would not do a woman's tasks (unless she happened to feel like
it); she would not hold her tongue in the presence of men. Indeed, she
had been known to talk back to the head man himself, and she had had
the last word into the bargain.

Not content with her own misbehaviour, Bela lost no opportunity of
gibing at the other women, the hard-working girls, the silent, patient
squaws, for submitting to their fathers, brothers, and husbands. This
naturally enraged all the men.

Charley Whitefish was violently objurgated on the subject, but he was
a poor-spirited creature who dared not take a stick to Bela. It must
be said that Bela did not get much sympathy from the women. Most of
them hated her with an astonishing bitterness.

As Neenah, Hooliam's wife, explained it to Eelip Moosa, a visitor in
camp: "That girl Bela, she is _weh-ti-go_, crazy, I think. She got a
bad eye. Her eye dry you up when she look. You can't say nothing at
all. Her tongue is like a dog-whip. I hate her. I scare for my
children when she come around. I think maybe she steal my baby.
Because they say _weh-ti-gos_ got drink a baby's blood to melt the ice
in their brains. I wish sh