“But you cannot live alone,” Mollie protested.
The Indian girl shook her head without answering. “If I tell you,” she implored, “will you promise me by the stars never to betray me? Promise, promise, or I shall disappear and you will see me never again.”
“Oh,” Mollie answered thoughtlessly, “I promise.”
A swift change swept over the Indian girl’s face. She leaned confidingly toward Mollie, who realized for the first time what her promise meant. She was already dying to tell Bab and the other girls of her afternoon’s experience, but she vowed to herself to keep the child’s secret.
“I do not live alone,” Eunice declared. “I have a grandmother, who is an old, old Indian woman. Our hut is far back in the hills. All day I have watched and waited by your cabin, until the others went away. I wanted to see that all was right with you. I trust you with my secret. Now, I must be far away.”
“But won’t you come again, Eunice?” begged Mollie. “Why not come and see all of us? We are only other girls like you. My sister and her friends have only gone away for a visit to the Lathams’.”
Eunice started and shook her black hair. “Latham! You must not speak the name to me!” she cried fiercely. “My grandmother says it is an evil name, and will work harm to me.”
Mollie laughed at her. “The name of Latham is nothing to you, Eunice,” she protested. “But won’t you let me thank you for leading my sister to me? You must have been the will-o’-the-wisp with the dark lantern. You must have made the fire, and—and—you must even have put Grace’s sweater over my shoulders as I lay asleep. You are my ghost!”
The Indian girl drew herself up proudly, but her dark face turned curiously white. “Yes,” she muttered, “I took the red cloak away. My grandmother says that I stole it, and Indians of royal blood do not steal. I am no ghost, I am a princess!” Eunice looked at Mollie with haughty grace.
“I did not know I was stealing,” she insisted. “I saw the soft, red thing. I did not think. I love the scarlet colors in the world.” She touched the crimson leaves in her hair. “When I found that I had stolen I meant to bring the cloak back. Then I saw you asleep in the woods. You looked so cold and white that I put the cloak over your shoulders to keep you warm. Now you have your own again.”