“Who was the man in scarlet who came from the woods”? asked Trafford of the half-breed.
“‘Voila,’ it is strange! There is an old story among the Indians! My mother told many tales of the place and sang of it, as I sang to you. The legend was this:—In the hills of the North which no white man, nor no Injin of this time hath seen, the forefathers of the red men sleep; but some day they will wake again and go forth and possess all the land; and the buffalo are for them when that time shall come, that they may have the fruits of the chase, and that it be as it was of old, when the cattle were as clouds on the horizon. And it was ordained that one of these mighty men who had never been vanquished in fight, nor done an evil thing, and was the greatest of all the chiefs, should live and not die, but be as a sentinel, as a lion watching, and preserve the White Valley in peace until his brethren waked and came into their own again. And him they called the Scarlet Hunter; and to this hour the red men pray to him when they lose their way upon the plains, or Death draws aside the curtains of the wigwam to call them forth.”
“Repeat the verses you sang, Pierre,” said Trafford. The half-breed did so. When he came to the words, “Who loveth the beast of the field the best,” the Englishman looked round. “Where is Shangi”? he asked. McGann shook his head in astonishment and negation. Pierre explained: “On the mountain-side where we ride down he is not seen—he vanish... ‘mon Dieu,’ look!”
On the slope of the mountain stood the Scarlet Hunter with drawn bow. From it an arrow flew over their heads with a sorrowful twang, and fell where the smoke rose among the pines; then the mystic figure disappeared.
McGann shuddered, and drew himself together. “It is the place of spirits,” he said; “and it’s little I like it, God knows; but I’ll follow that Scarlet Hunter, or red devil, or whatever he is, till I drop, if the Honourable gives the word. For flesh and blood I’m not afraid of; and the other we come to, whether we will or not, one day.”
But Trafford said: “No, we’ll let it stand where it is for the present. Something has played our eyes false, or we’re brought here to do work different from buffalo-hunting. Where that arrow fell among the smoke we must go first. Then, as I read the riddle, we travel back the way we came. There are points in connection with the Pipi Valley superior to the hills of the Mighty Men.”
They rode away across the glade, and through a grove of pines upon a hill, till they stood before a log but with parchment windows.
Trafford knocked, but there was no response. He opened the door and entered. He saw a figure rise painfully from a couch in a corner,—the figure of a woman young and beautiful, but wan and worn. She seemed dazed and inert with suffering, and spoke mournfully: “It is too late. Not you, nor any of your race, nor anything on earth can save him. He is dead—dead now.”
At the first sound of her voice Trafford started. He drew near to her, as pale as she was, and wonder and pity were in his face. “Hester,” he said, “Hester Orval!”
She stared at him like one that had been awakened from an evil dream, then tottered towards him with the cry,—“Just, Just, have you come to save me? O Just!” His distress was sad to see, for it was held in deep repression, but he said calmly and with protecting gentleness: “Yes, I have come to save you. Hester, how is it you are here in this strange place—you?”