could not bear it. She gave Jack a little shake. "What are you so
mysterious about?" she questioned softly. "Olilie is not Laska's child,
is she? You have found out something about her and you don't dare tell."

Jack hesitated. "It is queerer than we thought," she confessed. "Mrs.
Merton, Olilie's teacher, does not think that Olilie is Laska's child,
but she has no way of proving it. The funny thing is, she says that
Laska gets money each month for taking care of Olilie and that is why
she does not wish to give her up. No one knows who sends her the money
nor where it comes from, Mrs. Merton says. But maybe if we tell Laska
that she can keep this money if she lets us have Olilie, she will give
her up to us. Mrs. Merton has tried to get Olilie away from Laska
herself and to find out more about her, but she has never learned the
least little thing."

Laska's hut was better than many of the other Indian houses, being made
of timber plastered with mud and with a dirt roof. The door was half
open, but it was impossible to tell whether any one inside saw the
approach of the automobile.

Jack and Jean ran up the path ahead, without waiting for Mrs. Simpson
and were almost at Laska's door when a low, savage growl stopped them.
Jean stepped back a moment and clutched at Jack's skirts, but Jack went
on without thinking of danger. She only half heard Jean's cry of warning
as she lifted her hand to knock on the door. In that second a great,
grey figure sprang up in front of her and Jack saw two rows of sharp
teeth on a level with her throat. She had lived all her life among the
wild animals of the prairies and of the ranch, and knew that if, in a
second of danger, she flinched or showed cowardice, she was lost. How
she was able to stand perfectly still for that second she did not know,
for a moment later, she gasped and turned white as a sheet, but Jean and
Mrs. Simpson caught her. Frank Kent had managed in some remarkable
fashion to get in front of Jack and strike down the huge brute with his
stick. A few minutes later Laska came to the door of her hut. She had
seen Jean and Jack approaching alone and had not known what friends they
had with them.

A long and useless conversation followed. Laska would give no
satisfaction about Olilie, insisting that the girl was her child, that
she knew nothing of any money that came for her care. Josef was away,
but they both wanted the girl to return home.

Mrs. Simpson grew weary of argu