“No, I’m not.”
“I suppose, now, you thought that little dip a welcome break in the monotony of camp-life, while you were waiting for Dan.”
She looked at him in a quick, questioning way he thought odd. 51
“Oh—yes. While I was waiting for—Dan,” she said in a queer tone, and bent her head over the clay image.
He thought her very interesting with her boyish air, her brusqueness, and independence. Yet, despite her savage surroundings, a certain amount of education was visible in her speech and manner, and her face had no stamp of ignorance on it.
The young Kootenais silently withdrew from their races, and gathered watchfully close to the girl. Their nearness was a discomfiting thing to Lyster, for it was not easy to carry on a conversation under their watchful eyes.
“You gave them prizes, did you not?” he asked. “How much wealth must one offer to get them to run?”
“Run where?” she returned carelessly, though quietly amused at the scrutiny of the little redskins. They were especially charmed by the glitter of gold mountings on Mr. Lyster’s watch-guard.
“Oh, run races—run anywhere,” he said.
From a pocket of her blouse she drew forth a few blue beads that yet remained.