secrete her heart. She lowered her head to hide her stricken
eyes from him. Suddenly she turned and fled through the trees.

Garth was beginning to believe that Rina after all was not so different
from her white sisters; if so, he thought she would come back. Natalie,
who had overheard all that passed, said so too. Garth wished to carry
Natalie out of the tent, that she might help him work with the girl; but
Natalie, with better wisdom, said no, that Rina would be more tractable
if she were out of sight.

Meanwhile he set to work with an air of unconcern he was far from
feeling--there were a hundred ways this plan of his might miscarry, and
only one way it could succeed! He tied old Cy to his stake again; and
carefully gathered up what remained of the herbs Rina had cast on the
ground. He unloaded the seized supplies and made a temporary cache under
a piece of sail-cloth.

By and by, while he was so engaged, he became aware that Rina was
hovering about among the trees. He went on with his task, carefully
avoiding any notice of her. She approached by devious stages, like a
child drawn against its will. When it became impossible longer to
conceal herself, she came into the open with her old, wistful, sullen,
inscrutable face. Garth went about his work, displaying no anxiety to
treat. He made her speak first.

"What you want say to me?" she asked at last, feigning supreme
indifference.

"Sit down," he said.

She dropped obediently on the grass; and averted her head. She did not
squat like the other red people; but reclined, supporting herself on one
hand, much as Natalie might have done.

Garth lit his pipe, considering what simple, figurative form of words
would best appeal to her understanding.

"I do not wish Mabyn harm," he began mildly. "He is nothing to me. My
heart knows only one wish--to make her well, and to take her back safely
to her friends outside. To accomplish that, I will let nothing stop me!"

He paused to let it sink in. Rina gave no sign of having even heard.

"That is your wish, too," he continued. "You want her away from here.
She and I are nothing to you. You were happy before we came!"

She darted a startled look at the man who could so well read her
feelings.

"Mabyn is mad because she will not have him!" Garth went on. "He is
always crazy for what he cannot have."

She turned her head again with the look that said so plainly, "How did
you know that?"

"When we get her away, he wil