uilding, half store, half mere dwelling, which
searched the movements of the degraded tribe which yielded something
approaching slavery to the bastard white mind which lurked behind them.

The silence of the place was intense. There was no yap of angry cur
here. There was no sign of life anywhere, beyond that yellow patch of
light. The place was large and stoutly constructed. The heavy
dovetailed logs suggested the handicraft of the white. The dimly
outlined roof pitches had nothing of the Indian about them. But in
other respects it was lacking. There were no fortifications. It was
open to approach on all sides. And its immediate neighborhood reeked
with the native odors of the Indian encampment. It suggested, for all
its aloofness, intimate relations with the aboriginal life about it.
It suggested the impossibility of escape for its owner from the taint
of his colored forebears.

Though no sound broke the stillness about this habitation shadows were
moving under its outer walls. Gliding shadows moving warily, stealing
as though searching out its form, and measuring its vulnerability.
They hovered for moments at darkened window openings. The closed doors
afforded attraction for them. For half an hour the silent inspection
went on.

These movements seemed to have system. No doorway or window escaped
attention. No angle but was closely searched. Yet for all the
movement, it was ghostly in its completeness of silence. Finally the
lighted window drew their whole attention, and, for many minutes,
nothing further interested them.

At last, however, the gathering broke up. One figure passed away
around an angle of the building and disappeared in the direction of a
closed doorway. A second figure, larger than the others, passed on in
the direction of another door. The third, a slim, alert creature,
remained at the window. In one hand he held a long, keen-edged knife.
In the other a heavy pistol loaded in every barrel.

Within the building an equally silent scene was being enacted.

The room was low roofed, with a ceiling of cotton billowing downwards
between the nails which held it to the rafters. No minute description
could adequately picture the scene. It was half living-room, half
store for Indian trade, and wholly lacking in any sort of order or
cleanliness.

One wall was completely covered with shelves laden with merchandise.
There were highly colored cotton prints and blankets. There were