f Singing Arrow.

I shouldered my way to her lodge with speed that made me a target for
scantily hidden laughter. But I could not find her. Lodge and fire
were alike deserted. I asked questions, but was met by shrugs. My
eagerness had been unwise. I had sought too openly and brusquely, and
the Ottawas suspected my zeal of being official rather than personal.
I saw myself in their eyes as an officer of the law, and knew that I
had closed one door in my own face. I told myself contemptuously that
I had made so many blunders in that one day that I must, by this time,
have exhausted the list, and that I would soon stumble on the right
road as the only one left.

And so it proved. For I went to my canoes, and there, perched
bird-wise on my cargo, and flinging jests and laughter at Pierre and
the men, sat Singing Arrow.

It was what I most wanted, and so relieved was I at finding it, that I
could not forbear a word of reproof.

"I told you to keep away from Singing Arrow!" I stormed at Pierre, like
the mother who stops to shake her recovered child before she cries over
it.

Pierre grinned shamefacedly, but Singing Arrow smiled like May sunlight.

"Has monsieur been looking for me?" she asked. "He carries the wet red
clay that lies in front of my wigwam," and she pointed a curving finger
at my boots.

I could have embraced her. If I had no wit, she had it and to spare.
I made up my mind, then and there, to trust her. It was a mad chance,
but a good gamester likes a dangerous throw.

"Come here, Singing Arrow," I commanded, and I would have led her down
the beach out of earshot.

She followed but a step or two, then halted, balancing herself on one
foot like a meditative crane. "I want sunset-head to go too," she
insisted, darting her covert bird-glance at Pierre, and when I would
have objected, I saw her mouth pinch together, and I remembered that no
Indian will submit to force. So I let her have her will.

We held short council: Pierre the peasant, Singing Arrow the squaw, and
I, the Seignior de Montlivet. We mingled suggestions and advice, and
struck a balance. The sunset flamed in the woods behind us, and I knew
that the moon rose early. I could have used a knife upon Pierre for
the time it took me to convince him that our canoes could carry one man
more. Heretofore my nod had been enough to bring him to my heels, but
now he thought his head in danger, so he fought with me like an animal
or an e