Chloe shook her head. "No," she said. "Not that—not after—I think I shall call you Bob MacNair."
The man looked perplexed. "Women are not like men," he said, simply. "I do not understand you at times. Tell me—why did you come into the North?"
"I thought I had made that plain. I came to bring education to the Indians. To do what I can to lighten their burden and to make it possible for them to compete with the white man on the white man's terms when this country shall bow before the inevitable advance of civilization; when it has ceased to be the land beyond the outposts."
"We are working together then," answered, MacNair. "When you have learned the North we shall be—friends."
"Never! I——"
"Because you will have learned," he continued, ignoring her protest, "that education is the last thing the Indians need. If you can make better trappers and hunters of them; teach them to work in mines, timber, on the rivers, you will come nearer to solving their problem than by giving them all the education in the world. No, Miss Chloe Elliston, they can't play the white man's game—with the white man's chips."
"But they can! In the States we——"
"Why didn't you stay in the States?"
"Because the government looks after the education of the Indians—provides schools and universities, and——"
"And what do they turn out?"