With handkerchiefs and torn cloths they made shift to get a bandage about Wah-coo-tah’s wound; then they sat beside her and waited for her to recover consciousness.
“She saved us,” said Dell tremulously, “and it may be that she has given her life to do it.”
“The girl has a good heart,” returned the scout, “and you might wonder at that, considering what sort of a father she had.”
“This Nuzhee Mona is a lake, then?” asked Dell.
“I believe, now, that I have heard of such a lake, but this is the first time I have connected that name with it.”
“I thought Wah-coo-tah said it was the name of an Indian deity.”
“All same,” came softly from the lips of Wah-coo-tah, and the scout and Dell looked, to see that her eyes had opened. “Nuzhee Mona all same god, Rain Walker, Flood. You sabe?”
“The god of the waters, Wah-coo-tah?” returned the scout.
“Ai,” she answered; “him god of waters and name of lake, ’way up, alongside cañon. Lawless blow out um rock, and let water come. Him think Pa-e-has-ka no understand about rock door at top of shaft, and that Nuzhee Mona come into mine, fill it, strangle scout. Ai, ai! but we fool um. Lawless shoot Wah-coo-tah so she no tell Pa-e-has-ka.”
“Was it Lawless himself who fired that shot?” demanded Buffalo Bill.