"No. I think he was too tired and too badly hurt to want to do anything like that. We rode hard, and he kept me tied on his horse all the time. We stopped to sleep long after dark and started riding again before sunup. There was always at least one man awake to guard me."
All the while she had been talking, Nancy had kept a tight grasp on his arm. Now he gently pulled away from her and stood up.
"Nancy, I must leave you for a while."
"No!" Her voice was shrill with fear.
"I must. There are many wounded who need me."
Fearful of how she would react to what he was going to say next, he hesitated. Then he spoke quickly to get it over with, as he did when he had to hurt a patient. "This is my wife, Redbird. She will care for you."
"Your wife?" Even in the semidarkness of the wickiup White Bear could see pain in her eyes.
"Yes." He had no time now to ease her suffering on that score.
He turned to Redbird and said in Sauk, "Do what you can for her. She saw her father and many others of her people killed."
"I must know who she is," said Redbird, fixing him with her slanting eyes.