"Then Brother Paul has polished off Catherine," thought the Boy, "and he won't waste much time over a sore heart. It behoves us to hurry up with our penitence." This seemed to be Nicholas's view as well. He was beginning again in his own tongue.
"You know we like best for you to practise your English," said the priest gently; "I expect you speak very well after working so long on ze John J. Healy."
"Yes," Nicholas straightened himself. "Me talk all same white man now." (He gleamed at the Boy: "Don't suppose I need you and your perfidious tongue.") "No; us Pymeuts no wicked!"
Again he turned away from the priest, and challenged the Boy to repeat the slander. Then with an insinuating air, "Shamán no say you wicked," he reassured the Father. "Shamán say Holy Cross all right. Cheechalko no good; Cheechalko bring devils; Cheechalko all same him," he wound up, flinging subterfuge to the winds, and openly indicating his faithless ambassador.
"Strikes me I'm gettin' the worst of this argument all round. Brother Paul's been sailing into me on pretty much the same tack."
"No," said Nicholas, firmly; "Brother Paul no unnerstan'. You unnerstan'." He came still nearer to the Father, speaking in a friendly, confidential tone. "You savvy! Plague come on steamboat up from St. Michael. One white man, he got coast sickness. Sun shining. Salmon run big. Yukon full o' boats. Two days: no canoe on river. Men all sit in tent like so." He let his mittens fall on the floor, crouched on his heels, and rocked his head in his hands. Springing up, he went on with slow, sorrowful emphasis: "Men begin die—"
"Zen we come," said the Father, "wiz nurses and proper medicine—"
Nicholas gave the ghost of a shrug, adding the damaging fact: "Sickness come to Holy Cross."
The Father nodded.
"We've had to turn ze schools into wards for our patients," he explained to the stranger. "We do little now but nurse ze sick and prepare ze dying. Ze Muzzer Superieure has broken down after heroic labours. Paul, I fear, is sickening too. Yes, it's true: ze disease came to us from Pymeut."