“Did Silver Hand shoot ’em out?”
“No; they fell from Armstrong’s lips last night, in the fort.”
“Well, what did old Levi say?”
“I was standing at the third port-hole looking toward the hill, and all at once I heard a voice at my elbow. It said: ‘If she was mine I could not love her more. God pity me and let me live to make amends.’ I turned quickly, for there was a depth of agony in the speaker’s tone, and I beheld Levi Armstrong moving from the port-hole at my left.”
Wolf-Cap’s face was ghastly in its coloring, when the youth looked into it again, and a white hand griped his arm.
“Are you sure it was old Levi?” stammered the trapper.
“I am, for I spoke to him a second later,” answered the young man confidently. “I heard the words plainly, and you know all that he said.”
Wolf-Cap suddenly stopped in his tracks, and drew the whole attention of his companions upon him.
“I begin to see light now, and I curse myself for being so blind until this moment,” he said. “Let me tell you.”
“Wolf-Cap speak after while,” said Silver Hand. “We on trail now and this no time for long talks. Pale Night-Hawk fly to the big water with snow-bird, and he must be caught before he sees the green waves.”