For a time neither spoke. The road was broader and better than that up the St. Marys. For years it had been a thoroughfare along which Indians, traders, and armies had moved in long procession; and it was well trampled, though it still required careful riding to prevent the horses stumbling.
Alagwa, in particular, was silent because she was puzzling over a question that the events of the last evening had made pressing.
If she was ever to find out beyond a doubt the reason why Jack came to Ohio to search for her she must find it out at once. She did not know, could not know, how long her opportunity to question would continue. Fantine had detected her secret and had kept it. At any moment another might detect it and might be less kindly.
Besides, Fantine had spoken as if she was doing wrong in travelling with Jack, even though he thought her a boy. Alagwa wondered at this, for no such conventions held among the Indians, among whom in early days unchastity was so rare that a woman had better be dead than guilty of it.
Jack noticed the girl’s abstraction and rode silently, waiting on her mood. At last he grew impatient. “A penny for your thoughts, youngster,” he offered, smiling.
Alagwa started. Then she met his eyes gravely. “I wonder much,” she said. “The thoughts of the Indian are simple, but those of the white men are forked, and I can not read them. You have come by dim trails over miles of hill and forest to find this girl whom you know never. And the Captain Brito, the chief in the red coat, he also come far, by land and by sea, to seek her. Why do you come? I do not understand.”
“Why do I come?” Jack echoed the words, smilingly. “Well! Let’s see! I come for several reasons—partly because Tecumseh sent me a belt asking me to come and partly because I was in the mood for adventure, but mostly because the girl is my cousin and because she needs help. I told you all this before, didn’t I?”
“Yes! But is not the Count Brito ready to help? Why do you not let him?”
Jack laughed. “I reckon he is,” he confessed. “And, so far as I know, he might have been able to make her quite as happy as my people can. I don’t really know anything against Brito. His reputation isn’t very good, but, Lord! whose is?”
“If he found her, what would he do with her?” Alagwa knew she was on perilous ground, but she went on, nevertheless.