Ralph flushed painfully. "I will not go!" he cried. "Send her! I know I've no right to dictate to you; I brought all this on you! But that gives me a right to stay here and help you out of it as much as I can! Afterward I'll not trouble you. You needn't fear that. I'll go!"
Nahnya lowered her head. "I sorry," she murmured. "You mus' go!"
Ralph argued desperately against his own convictions. He had had such proof of Nahnya's foresightedness that he could not but believe she was right now as she had been before. "I know I can't hold a gun," he cried, "but I can advise you! There are other things. If there is any risk to be taken it is my right! My life is worth nothing to me!"
Nahnya turned from him sharply. She issued a quick order in Cree, and Ralph was seized by the three Indian youths and Philippe. He was helpless in their hands. At the sight of his pain-distorted face Kitty screamed. Nahnya spoke peremptorily, and thereafter they handled him more gently. Nahnya herself kept her back turned to him. They wound a rope loosely about Ralph's body, pinning both his arms. Ralph drained the dregs of his bitter cup. He did not speak again.
"You take them out to Jim Sholto," Nahnya said in English to Philippe. "You tell Jim Sholto not to let him loose till he tak' him away from here, so he not make trouble."
After a pause she went on. "After, you go to Joe Mixer. You tell him it is too late to come in to-night. Tell him come to-morrow. Tell him Annie Crossfox will not fight."
Philippe started to protest.
"It is my plan," said Nahnya coolly. "I tell you all when it is time. You mus' stay in Joe Mixer's camp to-night. Soon as light comes you mus' get up. You mus' leave their camp without wake them up. You mus' go up the gulch past the hole in the rock and around the bend. I wait for you there.
"Start now!" she went on. "Take a blanket and plenty ammunition and dry moose meat. Cache it by the hole in the rock when you go out. Bring it in the morning. You are going on a long trip."
Philippe muttered sullenly in Cree.