Part 17 (2/2)
”Birds sing.”
”Lois, will you let me aid you?”
”In what? The Sagamore feeds me; and the Middle Fort is not so far.”
”And at the Middle Fort how will you live?”
”As I have lived; wash for the soldiers; sew for them--contrive to find a living as I journey.”
”Whither?”
”It is my own affair.”
”May I not aid?”
”You could not if you would; you would not if you could.”
”Ask me, Lois.”
”No.” She shook her head. Then, slowly: ”I do thank you for the wish, Mr. Loskiel. But the Siwanois himself refuses what I ask. And you would, also, did you know my wish.”
”What is your wish?”
She shook her head: ”It is useless to voice it--useless.”
She gathered the scant fragments of her meal, wrapped them in a bit of silver birch-bark, unrolled her bundle, and placed them there. Then she drained the tin cup of its chilly water, and, still sitting there cross-legged on the rock, tied the little cup to her girdle. It seemed to me, there in the dusk, that she smiled very faintly; and if it was so it was the first smile I had had of her when she said:
”I travel light, Mr. Loskiel. But otherwise there is nothing light about me.”
”Lois, I pray you, listen. As I am a man, I can not leave you here.”
”For that reason, sir, you will presently take your leave.”
”No, I shall remain if you will not come into camp with us.”
She said impatiently:
”I lie safer here than you around your fire. You mean well; now take your leave of me--with whatever flight of fancy,” she added mockingly, ”that my present condition invests me with in the eyes of a very young man.”
The rudeness of the fling burnt my face, but I answered civilly:
”A scalping party may be anywhere in these woods. It is the season; and neither Oneida Lake nor Fort Niagara itself are so distant that their far-hurled hatchets may not strike us here.”
”I will not go with you,” said she, making of her bundle a pillow.
Then, very coolly, she extended her slim body and laid her head on the bundle.
I made no answer, nor any movement for fully an hour. Then, very stealthily, I leaned forward to see if she truly slept. And found her eyes wide open.
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