lame on
others and to free himself. An Indian trick, of course, and who but the
little Indian maid within the trader's gates could be the instrument!
Through her, of course, the conspirators about the post had been enabled
to act. She was the general's _protegee_, not his, and the general must
shoulder the blame. Even when Flint saw Nanette, self convicted through
her very garb and her presence at the scene of the final struggle,--even
when assured it was she and not the little Ogalalla girl who had been
caught in the act,--that the latter, in fact, had never left the
trader's house, his disproportioned mind refused to grasp the situation.
Nanette, he declared, with pallid face, "must have been made a victim."
"Nothing could have been farther from her thoughts than complicity in
the escape of Eagle Wing." "She had every reason to desire his
restoration to health, strength and to the fostering care of the good
and charitable body of Christian people interested in his behalf." "All
this would be endangered by his attempt to rejoin the warriors on the
warpath." The major ordered the instant arrest of the sentry stationed
at the door of the hospital room--shut out by the major's own act from
all possibility of seeing what was going on within. He ordered under
arrest the corporal of the relief on post for presumable complicity,
and, mindful of a famous case of Ethiopian skill then new in the public
mind, demanded of Dr. Waller that he say in so many words that the gag
and wrist thongs on the prostrate sentry had not been self applied.
Waller impassively pointed to the huge lump at the base of the
sufferer's skull, "Gag and bonds he might have so placed, after much
assiduous practice," said he, "but no man living could hit himself such
a blow at the back of the head."

"Who could have done it, then?" asked Flint. It was inconceivable to
Waller's mind that any one of the soldiery could have been tempted to
such perfidy for an Indian's sake. There was not at the moment an
Indian scout or soldier at the post, or an Indian warrior, not a
prisoner, unaccounted for. There had been halfbreeds hanging about the
store prior to the final escapade of Pete and Crapaud, but these had
realized their unpopularity after the battle on the Elk, and had
departed for other climes. Crapaud was still under guard. Pete was still
at large, perchance, with Stabber's braves. There was not another man
about the trader's place whom Flint or others could