"Would you kill a defenceless man, father?" she replied. "Has he not come into our lodge? When did Klitonda ever do such a thing before? Surely he is not himself to-night."
For a few brief heart beats the chief looked intently upon his daughter. Then his face softened, and the muscles of his body relaxed.
"You are right, little one," he assented. "Klitonda forgets himself to-night. But, oh, there was reason. They would steal Owindia, my only child, away from me, and they have sent this dog with the message.
"See," and he turned fiercely upon the Chilcat, "take this axe to the chief's son. Show him how heavy and sharp it is. Tell him that Klitonda, chief of the Ayana, and chief of the Ranges from a long line of ancestors, will never give up his daughter. He will die first, and Owindia will die with him. Go, leave my lodge, lest my rage get the better of me."
Silently the Chilcat reached out his hand and seized the axe. Quickly he turned, and without a glance at either the chief or his daughter left the lodge. Owindia, who was close to the entrance, slipped out after him, leaving her father standing alone, sombre and thoughtful. Klitonda did not notice her departure, for there were too many things passing through his mind. He was thinking of the white men at the Post, and also of the score of young hunters who had followed him into the forest with the blood-stained tokens. Ere long Owindia returned, and sat quietly in a corner of the lodge unnoticed by her father. Upon her face was an expression of deep determination. The light of a great resolve shone in her eyes. No longer did her body tremble with apprehension. An inward strength seemed to possess her, which calmed her every fear.
At length Klitonda dropped upon the fur-skin robe at his feet, drew his knees up to his chin, and remained a long time in deep, silent thought. Night drew on apace, and the confusion around the various camp fires gradually subsided. But deeper than all else was the silence which reigned within Klitonda's lodge, where father and daughter kept watch, each racked with wild, varying emotions.
[CHAPTER XIII]
A MAIDEN'S WILL
While Klitonda stood face to face with the Chilcat messenger strange, deep thoughts were surging through Owindia's nimble brain. She knew that her father did not fully comprehend the seriousness of their situation. She felt sure that what the Chilcats said they would do they would perform to the bitter end. They had been victors too long to be lightly turned aside from any object upon which they had set their hearts. Her father had contemptuously called them dogs, but she knew that they were dogs in the real sense of the term, keen, swift, and relentless. She studied as only an anxious woman can, the face of the visitor in an effort to read his thoughts. She admired his coolness, and calm indifference to danger. Were all the Chilcats as brave as this one? she wondered. If the messenger was so full of courage what must the chief's son be like who had sent him forth? What message would this man take back with him? How would he interpret her father's action, and how long would it be before the Chilcats began the attack? She thought of her father, her own people, and of her lover within the Post. The end she could easily foresee, and a tremor shook her body. They would be slain, and she herself carried away captive. With her loved ones gone what would there be in life for her? But with them alive and safe there would still be hope in her heart.