Crowfoot actually grinned.
“Injun him have to run,” he asserted. “Bullets come fast and thick. If Injun him run slow mebbe he get ketched by bullet.”
Little Abe had risen on one elbow, the blanket falling from his shoulders, and watched the meeting between Dick and the old savage. Felicia also was awakened, and now she came hastening forward, her dark eyes aglow and a slight flush in her delicate cheeks.
“Joe! Joe! have you forgotten me?” she asked.
The redskin turned at once and held out his hands to her.
“Night Eyes,” he said, with such softness that all save Dick and Felicia were astonished, “little child of silent valley hid in mountains, next to Injun Heart, old Joe him love you most. You good to old Joe. Long time ’go Joe he come to valley hid in mountains and he sit by cabin there. He see you play with Injun Heart. Warm sun shine in valley through long, long day. All Joe do he smoked, and sat, and watched. Bimeby when Night Eyes was very tired she come crawling close up side old Joe and lean her head ’gainst Joe, and sleep shut her eyes. Then old Joe him keep still. When Injun Heart he come near old Joe, him say, ‘Sh-h!’ He hold up his hand; he say, ‘Keep much still.’ Then mebbe Night Eyes she sleep and sleep, and sun he go down, and birds they sing last good-night song, and stars shine out, and old Joe him sit still all the time. Oh, he no forget—he no forget!”
Somehow the simple words of the old redskin brought back all the past, which seemed so very, very far away, and tears welled from Felicia’s eyes.
“Oh, those were happy days, Joe—happy days!” she murmured. “I fear I shall never be so happy again—never, never!”
“Oh, must be happy!” declared the old fellow. “Dick him make um Night Eyes happy. Him look out for Night Eyes.”
“Just the same,” she declared, “I would give anything, anything, to be back in that valley now, just as I was long, long ago.”