wn
tongue.

Myengeen merely shrugged.

Stonor then ordered all the people into their tepees, and such is the
power of a single resolute voice that they meekly obeyed. Proceeding
from tepee to tepee he called out likely-looking individuals to be
questioned out of sight of the others. For a long time it was without
result; men and women alike, having taken their cue from Myengeen,
feigned not to understand. Such children as he tried to question were
scared almost into insensibility. Stonor began to feel as if he were
butting his head against a stone wall.

At last from a maiden he received a hint that was sufficient. She was a
comely girl with a limpid brown eye. Either she had a soul above the
Kakisas or else the bright-haired trooper touched her fancy. At any
rate, when he looked in the tepee, where she sat demurely beyond her
male relatives, she gave him a shy glance that did not lack humanity.
Calling her outside, he put the invariable question to her, accompanied
with appropriate signs: where was the white woman?

She merely glanced towards the mouth of the creek where the canoes lay,
then looked up the lake. It was sufficient. Stonor gave her a grateful
glance and let her go. He never knew her name. That the Kakisas might
not suspect her of having betrayed them, he continued his questioning
for awhile. Last of all he re-interrogated Myengeen. He did not care if
suspicion fell on him.

Stonor coolly picked out the best-looking canoe in the creek, and loaded
aboard what he required of his outfit. Myengeen and his men sullenly
looked on. The trooper, seeing that a fair breeze was blowing up the
lake, cut two poplar poles, and with a blanket quickly rigged mast and
sail. When he was ready to start he delivered the rest of his outfit to
Myengeen, and left his horses in his care.

"This is government property," he said sternly. "If anything is lost
full payment will be collected."

He sailed down the creek followed by the wondering exclamations of the
Kakisas. Sailing was an unknown art to them, and in their amazement at
the sight, like the children they were, they completely forgot the
grimness of the situation. Stonor thought: "How can you make such a
scatter-brained lot realize what they're doing!"

Stonor had supposed that Imbrie would take to the lake. On arriving at
the brow of the last ridge his first thought had been to search its
expanse, but he had seen nothing. Since then various indications
suggeste