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When the Macnabs had spent three weeks with us, they set off on the return journey to the Mountain Fort, taking Waboose along with them for Jessie Macnab had taken so strong a fancy to the fair-haired half-caste that she had prevailed on her to agree to visit the Mountain Fort in company with her mother, from whom she refused to be separated even for a few days.
The first was the sudden disappearance of Waboose and her mother. They had been gone some time, of course, before any one thought of suspecting flight. The moment that suspicion was aroused, however, Big Otter went straight to the wigwam of Attick. It was deserted! He knew well the bad and weak men of the tribe who were led or swayed by Attick.
"Are you wounded, mother?" exclaimed Eve, going down on her knees, seizing one of the poor woman's hands and kissing it tenderly. "No, Waboose, but I think there is something wrong here." She pressed her breast gently and coughed up some blood. "She is quite worn out," said I. "Come, Big Otter, let us carry her to a more comfortable place, and make a fire. A cup of tea will soon revive her."
This plan he had hastily adopted, on perceiving that it was impossible to escape us, having previously warned Waboose that he would shoot her dead if she did not corroborate what he said. But Attick was incapable of believing that fearless heroism could dwell in the breast of a woman, and little knew the courage of the daughter of Weeum the Good.
I'll explain all that in my letters, of course, but do you press it on them." "And be sure you tell the dark-haired pale-face," said Eve, "that Waboose expects her to come. Give these from her friend Fairhair she was fond of calling me Fairhair." Eve rose as she spoke, and produced a pair of beautiful moccasins, which had been made and richly ornamented by her own hands.
A new tent was set aside for our use, and a small one pitched close to it for Waboose, whose dignified yet modest bearing made a profound impression on those children of the wilderness.
Salamander sighed, but made no further objection, and half an hour later he left us. As we now possessed only two horses, it naturally fell to my lot, being a light weight compared with Big Otter, to take Eve up behind me. "We must get a horse for Waboose," said the Indian, as we galloped over the prairie that day.
"And now," I added, "since we have got a capital horse, and the journey before us is long, don't you think we should start to-morrow!" "Yes, to-morrow and it is time for Waboose to rest. She is strong, but she has had much to weary her, and her grief is deep." With a kindly acknowledgment of the Indian's thoughtful care of her, Eve rose and went to her tent.
Waboose found it out afterwards. Muxbee did not talk to Waboose of love. The ways of the pale-faces are strange. Once I thought that Muxbee liked Waboose, and that, perhaps, he might wed with her, and stay with us as the Good Weeum did, but I doubt it now. He only asked her to take him to the stunted pine where her father was so fond of going with her.
The manner in which I should set about it has perplexed me sorely, I confess, but this sudden departure relieves me, at all events, from uncertainty as to my present course of duty. If Waboose goes off with the tribe to no one knows where, she may never be found again. You are aware that she is still ignorant of the contents of the packet, and the value of the found treasure.
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