But instantly the mask of reserve dropped over the bronze features that for a moment had looked human.
"He doesn't remember," said Welch.
There was no use in waiting for a lapse into memory when ignorance was so persistently fostered. Burton rose.
"Ask Washitonka to accept from me this tobacco," he said. "It is in farewell. And for the women in his teepee I have brought presents." He took from his pocket two small hand-mirrors, and presented one to Ehimmeshunka and one to Pahrunta. Old Ehimmeshunka received hers with the delight of a child. She looked in it and laughed, and laughed and laughed, wrinkling up her queer old face in a manner wonderful to see. Pahrunta received hers in silence. She indeed hid it at once in her dress with an eagerness that showed its ownership was prized, but she did not show the excitability of Ehimmeshunka. Instead, she looked steadily at Burton. While he was making his final and formal adieux to Washitonka, he several times caught Pahrunta's serious eyes fixed upon him. But when he left the teepee she was busy over her work and gave no heed to him.
The train went out at four. Half an hour before it was due, Burton carried his bag over to the station platform. Then, merely from the habit of motion, he began pacing up and down the length of the board walk, waiting for the train. He was not in a cheerful mood, for his expedition had been a failure, and he was going back to a situation no more promising than he had left. As he turned on his heel at the extreme end of the walk, a blinding flash of light struck his eyes and made him wince. Where in the world did it come from? As he looked about, it again flashed dazzlingly into his eyes. A recollection of the way in which, as a youngster, he had indulged in the pleasing diversion of bewildering the passers in the street with a properly manipulated bit of looking-glass, helped him now to form a theory as to the present phenomena. Some urchin was having fun with the paleface! He looked carefully about, but there was no one in sight, nor was there seemingly any place on the bare prairie for a mischievous child to hide,--unless it was behind that leaning fence which served the railroad for a snow break in winter but which was now overgrown with the rank weeds of the summer. As he turned a suspicious eye upon it, he caught a momentary flash, instantly hidden. With a smile on his lips he sauntered down to the place, expecting to pull out from among the weeds some lithe, wriggling, brown-skinned boy, but to his utter amaze he found, crouching among the tall weeds, the heavy-featured Pahrunta, in her hand the mirror he had given her an hour before, and which she had used to attract his attention. Her attitude and actions showed plainly that she was anxious not to be seen from the teepees, and with a quick understanding of her desire for concealment Burton walked on a few steps, lit a cigar, and then slowly sauntered back as far as the fence and stopped near the place where she crouched.
"Did you want to tell me something?" he asked, speaking distinctly and hoping she might be more of a linguist than had yet appeared.
Such seemed, indeed, to be the case.
"You--friend," she said in a throaty guttural, helping her halting speech by pointing her finger at him.
"I am your friend,--yes," said Burton.
But she shook her head.