“Winnesaw, upon my life!” exclaimed Charley Shafer, recognizing the Pawnee girl who had loved him during his captivity.
The party soon reached the girl’s side, and saw at once that she stood on the brink of the dark river.
“Winnesaw escaped from the Pawnees,” she said, in feeble tones, “and she sought her mother who lives among the Apaches. She reached the mountains, and in the darkness she met the bear. They fought; Winnesaw conquered with her knife; but the beast tore her limbs. She is dying; she shot the pale Indian when he fired at the white trapper.”
She sunk to the earth from exhaustion, but Frontier Shack raised her up.
“Gold Girl,” she gasped, her eyes falling upon Lina Aiken, “Winnesaw love you. She loves boy with black eyes, too. But she give him up now; she go to light the fires in Red Eagle’s lodge in Manitou lands!”
Frontier Shack sprung into the saddle again.
“Look here, youngster, don’t this mean you?”
The speaker was a United States soldier, and he thrust a small piece of paper into the hands of a handsome youth who sat near an old hunter within the walls of Fort Kearney.
The boy held the paragraph before his eyes, and read: