Again there was a long pause before Rabbit Tail began once more.
"You know you whites kill many Injuns. Give Injun dirty sickness—kill Injun babies. Me—I see white take Injun baby by feet, smash head against rock. See Injun squaw belly cut out by white man. You know all that?"
Roger nodded. "The whites have been rotten to the Indians. I don't blame you for hating us. But how about Charley and the little girl?"
One of Qui-tha's squaws spoke. She had been educated at an Indian school.
"Charley showed me how to cure my baby of sore scalp and how to take care of him when he had croup. She lets me stay with her when he is sick or I am."
"She lets me use her sewing machine whenever I want it," spoke up a pretty young squaw in a red gingham dress.
"When old Chachee die," an elderly Indian woman looked from Charley to Rabbit Tail, "she die in Charley's house. Charley help sickness in her chest better'n medicine man."
Roger looked at Charley. He knew that she liked the Indians but she never had mentioned her good works to them.
The educated squaw spoke again. "I hate most white women. They treat us as if we were servants. But Charley treats us as if we were human beings like herself. And Felicia was a beautiful child."
"It's queer some of you have never been near Charley then, in her trouble," said Roger.