led encouragingly as he touched the man's brow with the damp
cloth.

"How does the head feel now?" he asked. "Does the cut pain you much?"

Red Fox did not answer immediately, but continued to stare at the lad
with the same open-eyed wonder.

"Pale-face kind," he said at length, in quiet tones. "He touch Red Fox
like wing of a dove. Why is the white boy so good?"

"Nonsense," returned Alf. "It's nothing at all. You don't think that
Englishmen would leave a fellow to bleed to death, do you?"

"No--English boy good," said the redskin. Then he added, with a sort of
wistfulness: "But Indian would leave pale-face----"

"Rot!" was the sharp interruption. "If I had been hurt as you have been,
you would do just the same. Now lie quiet for a while. You'll feel
better soon, and then you can go back to your people."

The Indian shook his head slowly.

"Red Fox understand. Red Fox know English tongue good. But--he no' go
back to people. He go--Manito--Happy Hunting-ground--soon."

Alf was silent. He had never been in the presence of death, and never
before in the presence of the dying. The thought awed him.

"Yes--white papoose good," the redskin went on falteringly. "He kind to
hand--that would have cut face for revenge. Ugh! Red Fox bad Indian,
but--he sorry--now. Can brave white boy forgive poor Indian?"

"Of course," returned Alf huskily. "You did not understand. English
people speak words that they do not mean to hurt. It is I who should ask
forgiveness for what I said about you. I, too, am sorry."

"Then--white and red are--brothers. They bury the hatchet and--my white
brother will stay with Red Fox while he go Happy Hunting-ground?"

"Yes, yes," the boy assented readily. "I won't leave you. Don't you be
afraid of that."

"It is well, for Red Fox would speak before he go. He would speak true
words to the pale-face. He spoke forked words like serpent tongue when
he say that white man sent Red Fox to bring papooses to Indian camp. But
he speak well now when he say white men with Mighty Hand now----"

"_Safe?_" exclaimed Holden, as the information came to him with sudden
joy and sudden dread.

And the answer was at once a relief and double anxiety.

"White men safe--now. But before another sun they--they die----"

"Die?" was the exclamation of horror that greeted this announcement.

"Yes," the Indian answered. "Dacotahs foolish. They say white men
spirits that brought great trouble of water to Indian. They s