“And that is why I come to you. I love my friends. There is some one I love, like you love your Nevil, and I want to save him. They will all be killed if I stay, for your brother is mighty—a great warrior. So I am going away.”
Rosebud’s allusion to the squaw’s love for her husband was tactful. She was completely won. The girl, who was clasping one of Wanaha’s hands, felt a warm, responsive pressure of sympathy, and she knew.
“Yes, now I want you to help me,” she hurried 308 on. “To go as I am now, a white girl in white girl’s clothing, would be madness. I know your people. I should never escape their all-seeing eyes. I must go like one of your people.”
“You would be—a squaw?” A wonderful smile was in the great black eyes as Wanaha put the question.
“Yes.”
“Yes, I see. Wana sees.” A rising excitement seemed to stir the squaw. She came closer to her white friend and spoke quickly, stumbling over her English in a manner she would never have permitted in cooler moments. “An’ in these way you mak’ yourself go. You fly, you run; so my brother, the great chief, no more you find. Yes? Then him say, ’him gone.’ We no more use him fight. We go by tepee quick. An’ there is great peace. Is that how?”
“That is it,” cried Rosebud, in her eagerness flinging her arms about the squaw’s neck. “We must be quick. Seth will miss me from the farm, and then there’ll be a to-do, and he will come hunting for me. Lend me your clothes, a blanket, and an Indian saddle. Quick, my Wana! you’ll help me, won’t you? Oh, make haste and say, and set my doubts at rest!”
The tide of the girl’s appeal had its effect. The squaw rose swiftly, silently. She moved off and presently came back with a bundle of beaded buckskin clothing. 309
“You wear these, they my own. I get him for you. See. You put on, I go get saddle. The blanket here. So. Nevil, my Nevil, from home. Wana not know where. But maybe he come quick an’ find you an’ then——”
Wana did not finish expressing her fears. She seemed suddenly to remember of whom she was speaking, and that there was disloyalty in what she was saying.