"Is all this true, Wolf Ear?"
"The words of your mother are true."
"But what meant your course toward me yesterday? I cannot reconcile that with what I have just heard."
"We parted friends, though I told you I was the enemy of the rest of your race. From the time we separated I have done all I could to find your people and save them before it was too late. Until now, I have not met you."
"You forget; we met in the gorge last night, and only this morning, when you sought the life of Nick Jackson, I chased you over the ridge in the effort to make you prisoner."
A smile overspread the dark face, and the head swayed a single time to one side.
"Brinton, you are mistaken; the Ogalalla whom you met, as you say, in the gully, and whom you sought to make prisoner, was not I—he was my twin brother, Young Bear; our mother can hardly tell us apart, and I taught him to speak English as well as I."
"Oh, what have I done!" wailed Brinton, breaking down utterly, and covering his face with his hands. "I never dreamed of this; can you forgive this dreadful mistake?"
"Yes," said Wolf Ear faintly, "I forgive you; I forgive the soldier who shot me, for he did it to save her life."
He wearily closed his eyes, but opened them again when he felt the chubby arms of Edith clasped round his neck, and her lips pressed against his.