“And does Rushing Water know that he has been robbed of his bride?”
“No. The chief sleeps a deep sleep and will not wake until the rays of the sun are again streaming through the forest. He gave the pale-face maiden to the charge of Nekomis and bade her watch her through the night.”
The Wizard was silent for a moment and then he spoke out hastily:
“Let the Red Rose return at once and say to Nekomis, as soon as the darkness has fled away let her call the chief to the couch of the white maiden, that he may see that her spirit has fled to the Shadowy Land. Let her tell him that she knew nothing of her illness till she saw her lying dead; but supposed that a heavy sleep was upon her. Then will the chief want the Medicine, and he will be close at hand so that he will not have to send hither for him. When the Red Rose has told Nekomis this, let her go to her own lodge. The chief must not know that she has been abroad to-night, or he may think she has had a hand in this.”
“The ears of the Red Rose have heard, and her fleet footsteps shall carry the message to Nekomis.”
She turned at once and bounded away through the forest, anxious to reach the village before the day should begin to break.
The gray light of the morning had begun to show in the east when she summoned Nekomis from her watch beside the couch of the dead.
Hastily telling her the message the Wizard had sent, she retreated to her own lodge, fearful that the chief might awake and find her there.
Nekomis went back to her place beside the couch and looked upon the pallid face of her victim once. Then she turned away, and lifting the curtain that divided the two apartments, she stood beside the still sleeping chief.
Only for a moment did she hesitate to awaken him, and then she touched him on the face, speaking his name at the same moment.