The discovery of the ford made the spot safe for the camp. Orders were given not to put up any lodges or unpack any baggage until morning, and the whole band prepared for a night in the open air.
Long after Ni-ha-be was sound asleep, her adopted sister was lying wide awake, and gazing at the stars overhead.
"I remember now," she said to herself. "It was my father told me about the stars. That's why I knew what the talking leaves meant. He was very good to me. I can see him plainer and plainer all the while."
Rita gazed and gazed, and thought and thought, until at last her eyelids closed heavily, and she too was asleep. Not so soundly as Ni-ha-be, for many strange dreams came to her, and all she could remember of them was the very last and latest of all.
It was just like the picture in the talking leaves which Many Bears had spoken about the day before, only that now the miners did not look like that, and Rita in her dream actually thought she saw Many Bears himself among the Indians who were attacking them.
"He said he was there. I see him. They are coming. The squaw I saw in the book. Mother!"
And suddenly Rita found herself wide awake, and all the rest of her dream was lost to her.
Ni-ha-be too was awake.
"What is the matter, Rita?"