. She did not use a
chair, of which there were several, but crouched upon a bear-skin, her
knees beneath her chin, her toes a trifle drawn together. She sat thus
for a long time, while Necia continued her stories and put the little
ones to bed. Soon the girl came to say good-night.

John Gale had never kissed his daughter, and, as it was not a custom of
her mother's race, she never missed the caresses. On rare occasions the
old man romped with the little ones and took them in his arms and acted
as other fathers act, but he had never done these things with her. When
she had gone he spoke without moving.

"She'll never marry Poleon Doret."

"Why?" inquired Alluna.

"He ain't her kind."

"Poleon is a good man."

"None better. But she'll marry some--some white man."

"Poleon is white," the squaw declared.

"He is and he ain't. I mean she'll marry an 'outside' man. He ain't
good enough, and--well, he ain't her kind." Alluna's grunt of
indignation was a sufficient answer to this, but he resumed, jerking
his head in the direction of the barracks. "She's been talking a lot
with this--this soldier."

"Him good man, too, I guess," said the wife.

"The hell he is!" cried the trader, fiercely. "He don't mean any good
to her."

"Him got a woman, eh?" said the other.

"No, no! I reckon he's single all right, but you don't understand. He's
different from us people. He's--he's--" Gale paused, at a loss for
words to convey his meaning. "Well, he ain't the kind that would marry
a half-breed."

Alluna pondered this cryptic remark unsuccessfully, and was still
seeking its solution when her lord continued:

"If she really got to loving him it would be bad for all of us."

Evidently Alluna read some hidden meaning back of these words, for she
spoke quickly, but in her own tongue now, as she was accustomed to do
when excited or alarmed.

"Then this thing must cease at once. The risk is too great. Better that
you kill him before it is too late."'

"Hardly that," said the trader.

"Think of the little ones and of me," the squaw insisted, and,
encouraged by his silence, continued: "Why not? Soon the nights will
grow dark. The river runs swiftly, and it never gives up its dead. I
can do it if you dare not. No one would suspect me."

Gale rose and laid his big hand firmly on her shoulder.

"Don't talk like that. There has been too much blood let already. We'll
allow things to run along a bit as they are. There's time eno