The renegade made no reply, and the three continued their journey for a considerable distance in silence, when he said:
"There's one thing, howsumever, I'll tell you without the axing. The gal they call the Frontier Angel is crazy!"
Mansfield started painfully at this.
"What made her crazy?" he asked, forgetting himself.
"Don't ax me, fur I can't tell you any more."
"She ain't white, is she?" demanded Peterson. "Won't hurt yer, I guess, ef you let us know that much."
"I won't tell you no more, so you can both dry up."
The journey was now continued without a word being spoken by any. The renegade seemed sullen and moody and maintained silence. His remarks had set both Peterson and Mansfield to thinking. It was not the first time they had both puzzled themselves thus. Who could the singular Frontier Angel be? was the all-absorbing question. She was crazy! that accounted for the reverence and awe in which she was held by the Indians. And yet her manner had never awakened the remotest suspicion that such was the case among the whites with whom she had come in contact. That accounted for the temerity with which she executed the holy object of her life—that of befriending the whites in peril.
Despite the improbability of the case, Mansfield could not avoid the thought that she was a white person. He could form no possible reason for thus thinking, and yet the thought would present itself. At last he imparted his singular idea to Peterson. The latter dissipated it at once by telling him that such could not be the case. Dingle, who knew as much, if not more of her than any of the rangers, assured him that he had noticed her features and face to satisfy himself, as he entertained and had heard so many doubts expressed about it. She had the black eyes and hair of the Indian, although the prominent cheek-bones and several other characteristics of the race were wanting. But the skin showed unmistakably that she belonged to the aboriginals.
"But where has she obtained that perfect knowledge of the English tongue that she evinces in her conversation?"