o be done?" she replied, simply; "of course, what father
wished to be done."

"And are you ready to go with me to the far south to see your father's
mother? Can you trust me to protect you?"

"Oh, yes," she replied, with a straightforward look that almost
disconcerted me; "have you not protected me well already?"

"And are you willing, Eve, to leave your tribe and go off alone with
me?"

"Alone!" she repeated, with a look of surprise; "oh! no--not alone.
Mother must go too, and also Big Otter."

Once more I felt somewhat confused, for, to say truth, I had totally
forgotten her mother and Big Otter for the moment.

"Well now, Eve--for I intend to call you by that name in future, except
when in the presence of your people--I must talk this matter over with
your mother and Big Otter. I have some fear that the latter may object
to go with us."

"He will not object," said Waboose, quietly. "He loved my father, and
always obeyed him."

"Very good. So much the better. Now, as to the valuable jewels--the
ornaments, I mean."

"Have you got them here!" asked Eve.

"Yes. Knowing the risk I shall run of losing them or having them stolen
from me, I have had a belt made which fits round my waist under my
clothes, in which the jewels and the money are placed. If I can manage
to get them and you safely conveyed to Colorado, all will be well, but
it is a long, long journey, Eve, and--"

I was interrupted at this point by Big Otter, who came to tell us that
supper was ready, and that, as the region in which they were encamped
was sometimes visited by hostile Indians, as well as by white trappers--
many of whom were great scoundrels--it would be prudent to keep within
the circle of sentinels after dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

ATTACKED BY BANDITS--A SAD DEATH AND A SUDDEN RESCUE.

It was well that we had been warned not to go beyond the camp, for there
happened at that time to be abroad on the prairies a band of miscreants
who would certainly have shot whoever they had caught straying. The
band was composed of white men--that class of white men who, throwing
off all moral and social restraints, give themselves up to the practice
of every species of iniquity, fearing neither God nor man. They were,
in short, a band of robbers and cut-throats, whose special business at
that time was hunting buffalo, but who were not averse to sell their
services to any nation that chanced to be at war, or to practice simple
r