"No, pardner. You stay here an' guard the lassie an' the kid. It's best not to leave 'em alone. Ye can't tell what might happen."
"Oh, don't go, Norman," pleaded Madeline, leaning forward and laying her hand gently on his arm. "Stay with us. So many things have happened lately that I dread to be alone."
"Well, I'll stay then," Grey assented. "Only I don't like to have Dan go over there by himself. Two are better than one."
All had now left the canoe except Nadu, who made no effort to move.
"Come," commanded Dan, as he was about to shove the canoe back into the water. "Ain't ye goin' to git out, too?"
"No. Me go to Hishu," was the brief reply.
Dan hesitated only for an instant, and then sent the craft reeling into the current. It was nothing to him whether the woman stayed or went. Seizing a paddle he headed the canoe for the opposite shore, intending to land about one hundred yards below the store. The evening was still, and hardly a sound did he make as he paddled swiftly forward.
As he neared the shore a rifle report suddenly broke the silence, followed immediately by a second, while a bullet whistled past his head. A scream of pain and fright came from Nadu, and looking quickly in her direction Dan saw her lift herself to her feet, reel and fall with a sickening splash into the dark water. A feeling of wild rage possessed the trapper. He realised now the cowardly nature of the attack, in which the Indian woman was the victim. He wheeled the canoe around in an effort to see some sign of Nadu. But nothing could he observe, although he drifted some distance down the river in the hope of seeing her body rise to the surface.
Resolved to search no longer he headed the canoe for the place where the others were waiting, when again the rifles spoke. Dan threw himself forward, and the bullet whistled harmlessly overhead.
"Them villains! Them sarpints!" he cried, as he ran the canoe upon the beach and leaped out. "I'll git me hands on 'em afore long, see if I don't," and he shook his fist in the direction of Hishu.