“Yes, be killed hard!” he said. “But, I will save you if you will be my squaw. None of the warriors shall ever know of what you have done to-night. Be my squaw and live. Speak!”
“And if I say no?”
“Then I shall take you into the midst of the warriors yonder, and Sly Hate will tell his story,” replied Heavy Sleep, grasping her arm.
“Hearken, Heavy Sleep!” she said. “It is true that I have been in the woods; but it was to save blood, not to spill it. Many times, as you know, I have risked the favor of my people by urging them to live at peace with the whites.”
The savage clutched her arm more tightly and said:
“No need to say that again. We all know it. You love pale faces. That is enough to make you die! I and Sly Hate have watched you. You are even now going to find White Fox so as to get him away. But you never try. Which will you do? Be my squaw, or burn at the stake with the whole tribe mocking and hating your memory? Which?”
The girl could not repress a shudder, which the savage noticed. It was a terrible choice. But, her wits did not forsake her. She saw that Heavy Sleep and his ally had just come up, and did not know she already had communicated with White Fox.
“Move aside and give me time to think alone!” she replied, as she drew her arm away, and looked upward at the stars. “I am much afraid you would hate me after a while, Heavy Sleep. You would get tired of me, and then give me up to the vengeance of the tribe.”
“No!” replied the Indian, with a degree less of harshness in his tone. “Heavy Sleep would keep his word. Give you a little time; but think fast. We shall be watching you.”
He passed a few yards away with Hulet. The girl’s thoughts came and went like lightning. Heavy Sleep evidently believed she would consent, with such a fearful alternative before her. But she was fully resolved to attempt the release of Brom, if she died for it. While trying to devise some desperate expedient, a drift of clouds suddenly shut out the starlight, and she knew that, for a moment, her body would hardly be seen. She glided straight forward, as though to pass between the two nearest huts. But, instead of doing so, she suddenly turned and darted to the left; and by the time her two watchers had discovered her ruse, she was in the prison-hut beside Brom.