"Where did you meet these people?" Garth asked her.
"On the prairie," she answered, low-voiced. "Yesterday, noon spell. They coming this way. Nick Grylls, him mak' moch friend with 'Erbe't, and 'Erbe't, him glad. Nick Grylls big man, rich man, everybody lak to be friend with him. Nick Grylls say him come to help 'Erbe't. Him give 'Erbe't ver' fine gun."
"Humph! Mabyn will pay dear for it!" Garth exclaimed.
"I say so him," Rina said eagerly. "Me, I tell 'Erbe't everybody see Nick Grylls him jus' mak' a fool of you. What he want with you? He want her for himself. 'Erbe't on'y laugh. 'E say—" Rina's voice sunk very low—"'Let him help me get her, and I'll keep her, all right!'"
Garth frowned and clenched his fists. His gorge rose intolerably, at the thought of this precious pair contending which was to have Natalie.
Rina went on: "Nick Grylls say to 'Erbe't, mustn't let her get out of the country. He say 'If she go out she divorce you.'" Rina pronounced the word strangely. "Nick Grylls say he know a place to tak' her all winter, Northwest, many days to Death River, where no white man ever go before. Him think I not hear what he say."
This was valuable information indeed.
Garth opened the letter. It was a curious document, for while the thoughts were like Grylls's, they were clothed in a certain smoothness of phrase more likely supplied by Mabyn:
Mr. Garth Pevensey, Sir: (Thus it ran) I am astonished beyond measure at the story I have learned from the lips of my good friend, Mr. Herbert Mabyn. I assure you, sir, that, though this is an unsettled country, we are not accustomed to lawlessness; nor do we propose to stand for it from strangers. You have twice attempted Mr. Mabyn's life; you have stolen and converted to your own use his household effects and supplies; you have unwarrantably imprisoned him on an exposed island to the great detriment of his health. Your purpose in all this is transparent. You seek to part him from his wife; and you are at this moment detaining Mrs. Mabyn in your shack.
I flatter myself I am not without weight and standing in this community; and I hereby warn you that in the absence of the regular police, I mean to see this wrong righted. If Mrs. Mabyn is immediately returned to her husband, you will be allowed to go unmolested. If you still detain her, we will seize her by force, as we have every right, moral and legal, to do. We know you have only food enough for a few days, so in any case the end cannot remain long in doubt.