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"Kut-le did an awful and unforgivable thing in stealing me. No one knows that better than I do. But he has treated me with respect and he has given me back my health. I thank him for that and and I do respect him!" Kut-le's eyes flashed with a deep light but he said nothing. Porter stared at the girl with jaw dropped. "Good Lord!" he cried. "Respect him! Wouldn't that come and get you!
For a strained moment the two eyed each other, hatred glaring at hatred, until Rhoda put a hand on Kut-le's arm. His face cleared at once. "So that's my reputation now, is it?" he said lightly. "That's your reputation!" sneered Billy. "Do you think that's all? Why, don't you realize that you can't live in your own country again? Don't you know that the whites will hunt you out like you was a rat?
Rhoda was in a stupor and lay quietly unconscious with the stars blinking down on her, a limp dark heap against the mountain wall. The three Indians munched mule meat, then Molly curled herself on the ground and in three minutes was snoring. Alchise stood erect and still on the ledge for perhaps ten minutes after Kut-le's departure.
At such times Kut-le's fingers tightened and he clinched his teeth, but he did not go to her. When, however, the frail figure drooped silently and inertly against the waist strap he seemed to know even in the darkness. Then and then only he lifted her down, the squaws massaged her wracked body, and she was put in the saddle again.
"You do foolish stunts," said Kut-le calmly, "and I have to put you right." Rhoda moaned. "Oh, how long, how long must I endure this! How could they be so stupid as to let you slip through their fingers so!" Kut-le's mouth became a narrow seam. "As soon as I can get you into the Sierra Madre, I shall marry you. You are practically a well woman now. But I am not going to hurry overmuch.
Kut-le's mouth closed in the old way. "And still you shall marry me, Rhoda!" "I am a white woman, Kut-le. I can't marry an Indian. The difference is too great!" Kut-le turned abruptly and walked to the cañon edge, looking far out to the desert. Rhoda, panting and half hysterical, watched him.
Then as her loneliness increased and she was forced back upon herself she grew to wonder what in her had given the Indian such an opinion. There was something in the nakedness of the desert, something in its piercing austerity that forced her to truthfulness with herself. Little by little she found herself trying to acquire Kut-le's view of her. Her liking for Molly grew.
"And what was Molly doing?" "She maybe help 'em run," said Alchise, coming forward. The relief in Kut-le's voice increased Rhoda's anger. "No such thing! She was persuading me not to go! Kut-le, you give Alchise orders not to touch Molly again. I won't have it!" "Oh, that's not necessary," said Kut-le serenely. "Indians are pretty good to their women as a general thing.
"No!" she said softly, under her breath. Kut-le's eyes deepened. He turned and picked up his rifle. "Bring your friend back to dinner, Alchise," he said. "Our little holiday must end right here." They reached the camp at noon and while the squaws made ready for breaking camp, Rhoda sat deep in thought. Before her were the burning sky and desert, with hawk and buzzard circling in the clear blue.
But the young Apache seemed in no wise hurried or excited. "Our old friends seem to want something!" he commented with his boyish grin. "What are you going to do now?" asked Rhoda, with calm equal to the Apache's. "I can't carry you up this wall," suggested Kut-le. "Very well!" returned Rhoda pleasantly. "I am quite willing that you should leave me here." Kut-le's eyes glittered.
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