She put a hand to her breast, and Crawford was dimly aware that he had given blow for blow. Somehow, this question had hurt her. A heartache sprang into her eyes.
“Ah! I think that there are two different men in you,” she said quietly, and Crawford was astonished that she spoke of him, not of herself. “I have been angry because, had it not been for you, Maclish and those Stone Men might have stayed away. But I have been wrong, very wrong. You are not what I thought—you see, I have not looked into your eyes before this! After all, I think that you are an agent of destiny, which we cannot escape——”
Crawford started. “Perrot said that! And now you!”
“Perrot said that? Metaminens? All my life I have hungered to see Metaminens.” Her voice lingered on the name with swift tenderness. Then she put out her hand and took that of Crawford, and a smile touched her lips gloriously. “And now he is coming, and it is you who bring him to me! Ah, I was wrong to be angry against you.”
Crawford was astonished and bewildered. Perrot had seen this woman thirty years ago, and again ten years afterward—yet the thing was impossible, rankly impossible! She herself implied that she had never seen Perrot! Looking into her eyes, he could think only of Perrot’s words: “I think she is a saint!” Upon him rushed the feeling that he was in touch with some deeply poignant mystery, that he was treading holy ground, that from enmity he had somehow won her to friendliness and confidence; and he was awed before her clear eyes.
“I do not wonder,” he said slowly, “that men look up to you as a being apart!”
She smiled slightly and loosened her grip of his hand.
“And I do not wonder that men follow you gladly,” she returned. “But no, no! I am only a woman, and to protect myself I manage to rule the tribes as I have been taught. I love them, I help them, I bring common-sense and what I have learned of healing and spiritual aid to their help—that is all. Because they believe in me, they find the help they seek.”
“But who, then, taught you?” Crawford could not check his words. “Who showed you this trail? Where did you come from, you who are no Indian but a white woman?”
Her eyes widened a little. He saw that same hurt look come into them, that look of heartache and pain.