XXI
THE RETURN TO THE VALLEY
The Indians of the valley were engaged at their morning tasks in front of the tepees, the women making and mending clothes, and St. Jean Bateese showing the boys how to wind the grip of a bow, when without warning the haggard white man and white woman rose over the edge of the green slope. The Indians dropped their work, and broke into loud exclamations, which brought Nahnya quickly out of one of the tepees. She silenced them peremptorily. Nahnya herself betrayed nothing. She approached Ralph and Kitty with a hard and accusing face, and waited for their explanation.
Despair made Ralph as callous-seeming and as laconic as Nahnya herself. "The white men know about this place," he said abruptly. "Joe Mixer and his party. They are on their way here. I came to warn you."
Nahnya's mask was unbroken. "How many?" she asked.
"Three white men and a native."
"Who told them?" she asked accusingly.
Ralph looked away.
"It was I told them," cried Kitty quickly and tremulously. She felt as if she were being ground to pieces between this stony pair. "They tortured him to get it out of him! Look at him! He can scarcely stand. You would have told them yourself."
"He tell you?" asked Nahnya remorselessly.