“Are you thirsty, too?” she called up. Sahwah made no answer. She took a step nearer the edge of the cliff and stood looking out over the lake.
“She’s walking in her sleep again!” exclaimed Katherine. Since the memorable night of the Select Sleeping Party when Sahwah had wandered out into the snow, the Winnebagos lived in constant expectation of some new performance.
As Katherine started toward her to lead her gently back to the tent, Sahwah began to raise her arms 160 slowly above her head, palms together. “Mercy!” exclaimed Katherine, “she’s going to dive off the cliff!” And rushing up pell-mell she seized her around the waist and dragged her back unceremoniously, regardless of the accepted rule about waking sleep walkers suddenly.
“Goodness, how you scared me!” said Katherine, when she had deposited Sahwah in her bed and answered her yawning inquiries as to what was the matter. “You can’t be trusted without a bodyguard.” And in spite of Sahwah’s protests that she had never in her life “walked” twice in the same night, Katherine insisted upon tying a string to her ankle and fastening the other end around her own. Sahwah was asleep again in five minutes, but Katherine lay and watched her for hours, expecting to see her rise and try to wander forth a second time.
Once she thought she heard footsteps on the path along the bluff and rose hastily to investigate, but the string she had tied around her ankle tripped her and jerked Sahwah, who bade her lie down and be quiet. Katherine subsided, rubbing her knee, which had received a smart bump, and grimacing with pain in the darkness. She heard the footsteps no more, but she had her suspicions that they belonged to the Dark of the Moon Society.
The next day at noon she called a hasty council on her bed. “Girls,” she said in a thrilling whisper, 161 “I’ve found the place where the Dark of the Moon Society meets!”
“Where? Where?” they all cried.
“In a cave under the east bluff. I just discovered it today. The entrance is all covered by trees. I found the ashes of a little fire inside. That’s where they’re cooking up their plans and preparing something to spring as a surprise on us.”
“Oh, if we could only hide back in that cave when they are there and hear and see what they are doing,” said Sahwah.
“How are we going to know when they will be there?” asked Gladys.