Watch-the-girls opposed this excessive speed, on account of the many females in her charge who could not keep up, and whom she was unwilling to abandon in the snow.
“If we go so fast,” she said, “we will have no forces left when we reach the Lali, and will have to fight them with our leaders only.”
“I can whip them all myself,” said Pounder, who was eager for the fight, and thought little of those who perished, whether of the enemy or of his own people.
Koree, too, urged them to quicker speed, lest the battle, the Lali and Sosee should all escape, and they themselves should be compelled to return without glory or the girl. “If I must go south”, he said, “I want the company of Sosee, and if I must die in the cold, I want to die with her.”
And so his tenderness for one became cruelty to many; and he led the forces hastily to the seat of war, while the girls and the weak fell back, unable to keep up. Watch-the-girls fell back with them, though abundantly able to go on. She said she would die with her charge, or else bring them up to the front later on.
And so some remained behind suffering, while others went forward suffering. Watch-the-girls was equally divided in her attentions between caring for the dying and getting forward the living.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
