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Ambrose observed that each dancer laid two matches on the cold stove as he took his place, and when he retired from the dance picked them up again. He asked what that signified. Watusk shrugged again. "How do I know?" he said. "It is always done." Ambrose learned later that this was the invariable answer of the Kakisas to any question concerning their customs.
I have told you," said Simon. "You will know him when you see! All tam show off lak a cock-grouse in mating-time. He is not Kakisa. He is a Cree who went with them long tam ago. Some say his father was a black man." "So!" said Ambrose. "And they stand for that?" Simon shrugged. "The Kakisas a funny people. Not mix with the whites, not mix with other Indians lak Crees. They keep old ways.
He marked him well. He was of middle size, a tall man among the little Kakisas, with a great shock of hair cut off like a Dutchman's at the neck. On the way over Ambrose was greatly astonished to feel his sleeve gently plucked. He studied the men beside him, and finally made out Tole under his flaring hatbrim. Into his ear he whispered: "I told you to go home."
With luck they could be back with the red-coats in two weeks or three. Meanwhile the mill was grinding blithely. Ambrose, who desired at all costs to keep the Indians in ignorance of what was happening, for fear they might get out of hand, sent Germain Grampierre to his father's house to get what little flour they had, and carry it to Watusk to feed the Kakisas for that day.
Macfarlane gave in with a shrug. "I suppose you'll stand by me if I'm hauled up for it," he grumbled. He drew his revolver and stood aside to let Ambrose pass. The others likewise drew back, as from one marked with the plague. Every face was hard with scorn. Ambrose kept his eyes straight ahead. When he appeared on the porch, cries, apparently of welcome, were raised by the Kakisas.
Again the mute nod. "Will you come with me to testify for him?" Nesis looked up blankly. "I mean," explained Colina, "will you come and tell his judges that he did not lead the Kakisas into trouble?" Nesis, by vivid signs, informed Colina that Ambrose had been a prisoner among the Indians. It occurred to Colina as strange, since she could understand English, that she should use signs.
"It is so," said Simon, grimly. "Thinks he is a king! All puff up with wind lak a bull frog. He mak' me mad with his foolishness. What would you? You cannot deal with the Kakisas only what he say. Because only Watusk speaks English. He does what he wants." "And can nobody here speak Kakisa?" Ambrose asked. "Nobody but Gordon Strange. It is hard talk on the tongue." "What else about him?" "Wa!
Ambrose believed these quiet, ragged little warriors to be more dangerous than their inflated leader. At least in their ignorance they were honest; one could respect them. In more ways than one Ambrose had felt drawn to the Kakisas. They seemed to him a real people, largely unspoiled as yet by the impact of a stronger race. If he could only have talked to them, he thought.
"He ground his grain and carried it back to the Indians, and they stored it in an empty shack across the river. This is conceded by both sides. "On the following night during the progress of a barbaric dance among the Kakisas, at which the prisoner was a guest an honored guest, remember an alarm of fire was given. "Upon running to the scene they found the shack in flames.
They both laughed at that. "He told Watusk that if John Gaviller died he, Strange, would settle all the trouble, and then the Company would make him the trader for good. He told Watusk that when he got to be trader he would soon fix Ambrose Doane, too. "Mr. Strange was always telling Watusk to tell the Kakisas that my father hated them, but that he, Strange, was their friend.
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