“And so you have come back to us again,” he said, after greeting the girl, while Wanaha smiled with her deep black eyes upon them from the table beyond the stove.
“Couldn’t stay away,” the girl responded lightly. “The prairie’s in my bones.”
Rosebud had never liked Nevil. To her there was something fish-like in those pale eyes and overshot jaw, but just now everybody connected with the old life was welcome. They chatted for a while, and presently, as Wanaha began to put the food on the table, the girl rose to depart.
“It’s time I was getting home,” she said reluctantly. “I’m not sure that they know where I am, so I mustn’t stay away too long—after the scrape I got into months ago. I should like to go across to the Reservation, but I’ve already promised not to go there alone. Seth warned me against it, and after what has passed I know he’s right. But I would like to see Miss Parker, and dear old Mr. Hargreaves. However, I must wait.”
Nevil crossed over to the table. He looked serious, but his blue eyes shone.
“Seth’s quite right. You mustn’t go alone. Little Black Fox is about again, you know. And—and the people are very restless just now.”
“That’s what he said. And I nearly frightened 250 auntie to death telling her she’d get scalped, and nonsense like that.”
Nevil laughed in response.
“If you’d like to go——” he began doubtfully.
“It doesn’t matter.”