W'at's the matter wit' you? You send me all
the way to get him team. Now you let on you mad 'cause he got it."

"I didn't send you," contradicted Bela. "You say yourself you go."

"I go because you say you got go if I don't go. I don't want you to
mak' anot'er fool lak before. I go for 'cause you promise me you stay
here."

It was impossible for poor Bela to justify her contradictions, so she
kept silent.

"You lak a woman, all right," declared Musq'oosis scornfully.

Bela had an idea that she could obtain a freer account of what was
happening at the settlement from Jeresis or Hooliam, but pride would
not allow her to apply directly to them.

Whenever she saw either of the boys making the centre of a group she
managed to invent some business in the neighbourhood. But the talk
always became constrained at her approach, and she learned nothing.
The youngsters of the tribe were afraid of Bela. This had the effect
of confirming her suspicion that there was something she needed to
learn.

Word was passed around camp that there would be a "singing" on the
lake shore that night. Bela, who had her own ideas about singing,
despised the crude chanting of her relatives and the monotonous
accompaniment of the "stick-kettle"; nevertheless, she decided to
attend on this occasion.

Waiting until the party was well under way, she joined it
unostentatiously and sat down in the outer circle of women. None but
those immediately around her saw her come.

These parties last all night or near it. It needs darkness to give the
wild part-song its full effect, and to inspire the drummers to produce
a voice of awe from the muttering tom-toms. They work up slowly.

During a pause in the singing, while the drummer held his stick-kettle
over the fire to contract the skin, some one asked Jeresis if he had
seen Bela's white man. This was what she was waiting for. She
listened breathlessly.

"Yes," answered Jeresis.

"Is he big, fine man?"

"No, middle-size man. Not much. Other men call him white slave, 'cause
Bela take him away."

"Bela is crazy," said another.

The speakers were unaware that she was present. The women around her
eyed her curiously. Bela smiled disdainfully for their benefit.

"Other woman got him now," Jeresis went on indifferently.

The smile froze on Bela's face. A red-hot needle seemed thrust into
her breast.

"Who?" someone asked.

"The white woman that was here. Make her head go this way, that way."
J