"I will tell Lost Wing that anything you have to say to him shall be a secret even from me. I—do not want to know it."
She spoke to the Indian in Sioux then and drew away, her eyes on the tracings of a snowshoe. Houston, pointing with his head, gave the Indian his directions.
"A woman is sick in a cabin, two miles straight west from here. Get Ba'tiste Renaud and take him there. Turn away from the stream at a tall, dead lodgepole and go to the left. You will see the cabin. I would rather that you would not go in and that you know nothing about the woman. Tell Ba'tiste that her name must stay a secret until she herself is willing that it be otherwise. Do you understand?"
"A'ri." The Indian went then toward his mistress, waiting her sanction to the mission. She looked at Barry Houston.
"Have you given him his directions?"
"Yes."
"Then, Lost Wing, do as he has told you."
The Sioux started on, soon to be engulfed in the swirling veil of the storm. Barry turned again to the girl.
"Just one more request: I can't carry the child up there—this way. Will you help strap her to my pack?"
Silently she assisted him in the grim task of mercy. Then: