"Have you come back to the Kootenai country for good?" she asked, after furnishing him with whatever she could find in the pantry without awakening the rest.
"I don't know—it may be for bad," he replied doubtfully. "I've taken the trail north to sound any tribes that are hostile, and if troops are needed they are to follow me."
"Up into this country?"
"I reckon so. Are you afraid of fighting?"
She did not answer. A new idea, a sudden remembrance, had superseded that of Indian warfare.
"How long since you left Fort Owens?" she asked.
"Fifteen days. Why?"
"A friend of MacDougall's started in that direction about two weeks ago. Davy sent a kind message by him; but you must have passed it on the way."
"Likely; I've been in the Flathead country, and that's wide of the trail to Owens. Who was the man?"
"His name is Stuart."