een innocent as a child's.

"And yet I am _quite_ old," he assured her. "Is this man Brokaw at the
Nest, Marge?"

She nodded.

"He has been there a month. He came after Hauck sent for him, and went
away again. Then he came back."

"And you are now running away from him?"

"From all of them," she said. "If it were just Brokaw I wouldn't be
afraid. I would let him catch me, and scream. Tara would kill him for
me. But it's Hauck, too. And the others. They are worse since Nisikoos
died. That is what I called her--Nisikoos--my aunt. They are all
terrible, and they all frighten me, especially since they began to build
a great cage for Tara. Why should they build a cage for Tara, out of
small trees? Why do they want to shut him up? None of them will tell me.
Hauck says it is for another bear that Brokaw is bringing down from the
Yukon. But I know they are lying. It is for Tara." Suddenly her fingers
clutched tightly at his hand, and for the first time he saw under her
long, shimmering lashes the darkening fire of a real terror. "Why do I
belong to Brokaw?" she asked again, a little tremble in her voice. "Why
did Hauck say that? Can--can a man--buy a girl?"

The nails of her slender fingers were pricking his flesh. David did not
feel their hurt.

"What do you mean?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "Did that
man--Hauck--sell you?"

He looked away from her as he asked the question. He was afraid, just
then, that something was in his face which he did not want her to see.
He began to understand; at least he was beginning to picture a very
horrible possibility.

"I--don't--know," he heard her say, close to his shoulder. "It was night
before last I heard them quarrelling, and I crept close to a door that
was a little open, and looked in. Brokaw had given my uncle a bag of
gold, a little sack, like the miners use, and I heard him swear at my
uncle, and say: 'That's more than she is worth but I'll give in. _Now_
she's mine!' I don't know why it frightened me so. It wasn't Brokaw. I
guess it was the terrible look in that man's face--my uncle's. Tara and
I ran away that night. Why do you suppose they want to put Tara in a
cage? Do you think Brokaw was buying _Tara_ to put into that cage? He
said 'she,' not 'he'."

He looked at her again. Her eyes were not so fearless now.

"Was he buying Tara, or me?" she insisted.

"Why do you have that thought--that he was buying _you_?" David asked.
"Has anything--happened?