"I don't doubt it in the least."
"Ther fact am we perpose ter travel in double harness ther rest on our lives and stick up er wigwam somewhar, though I can't tell jest yet whar it will be."
"She is a good and brave girl."
"Yes, all of that, and ther Little Raven am ernuther. It hain't often yer kin find sich squaws. But, yer mustn't stand heah er talkin'. Git ter ther camp of ther white folks as soon as ever yer kin."
"But, we shall certainly see you again?"
"More'n likely. Yes, we—that am ther Cloud and me—will strike yer trail berfore long, and prehaps keep on with yer till ther end. I've quite er notion ter gi'n up this 'er' jerrymanderin' life and settle down, and I reckon diggin' gold will suit me as well as any thin' else, 'specially as it am in er country whar I kin hunt when I have er mind ter."
He wrung both their hands, went with them as far as possible upon the trail, and then returned to talk to his dusky love about their future. But as the shadows lengthened he was again attracted to the prisoner, and saw that the torture had been renewed.
He was standing tied to the fire-blackened post, evidently more dead than alive. Almost entirely stripped of his clothing there was not a spot to be found that did not bear the marks of arrow, hatchet, knife or whip, and the blood that had oozed forth had congealed and gave him the most ghastly appearance that could be imagined. His hair and whiskers were clotted and his face streaked with gore, and between the crimson lines was white as chalk, while the working of the muscles—twitching constantly with pain—made the strong-hearted scout shudder and grow faint even to gaze upon.
Night passed, and with every mark of the horrid torture removed, the village rung with notes of joy. It had become known that the white man wished to be adopted into the tribe—that he was to take the Burning Cloud for a wife and that he had already notified the chief to that effect.