Part 14 (1/2)

”No! You no was.h.!.+ No use! You just get cold--heap cold!”

”Molly!” called Kut-le's authoritative voice.

Molly went flying toward the packs, from which she returned with a canteen and a tiny pitch-smeared basket. Kut-le followed with a towel.

He grinned at Rhoda.

”Molly is possessed with the idea that anything as frail as you would be snuffed out like a candle by a drop of water. You and I each possess a lone lorn towel which we must wash out ourselves till the end of the trip. The squaws don't know when a thing is clean.”

Rhoda took the towel silently, and the young Indian, after waiting a minute as if in hope of a word from her, left the girl to her difficult toilet. When Rhoda had finished she picked up the field-gla.s.ses that Kut-le had left on her blankets and with her back to the Indians sat down on a rock to watch the desert.

The sordid discomforts of the camp seemed to her unbearable. She hated the blue haze of the desert below and beyond her. She hated the very ponies that Alchise was leading up from water. It was the fourth day since her abduction. Rhoda could not understand why John and the Newmans were so slow to overtake her. She knew nothing as yet of the skill of her abductors. She was like an ignorant child placed in a new world whose very ABC was closed to her. After always having been cared for and protected, after never having known a hards.h.i.+p, the girl suddenly was thrust into an existence whose savage simplicity was sufficient to try the hardiest man.

Supper was eaten in silence, Kut-le finally giving up his attempts to make conversation. It was dusk when they mounted and rode up the mountain. Near the crest a whirling cloud of mist enveloped them. It became desperately cold and Rhoda s.h.i.+vered beneath her Navajo but Kut-le gave no heed to her. He led on and on, the horses slipping, the cold growing every minute more intense. At last there appeared before them a dim figure silhouetted against a flickering light. Kut-le halted his party and rode forward; Rhoda saw the dim figure rise hastily and after a short time Kut-le called back.

”Come ahead!”

The little camp was only an open s.p.a.ce at the canon edge, with a sheepskin shelter over a tiny fire. Beside the fire stood a sheep-herder, a swarthy figure wrapped from head to foot in sheepskins.

Over in the darkness by the mountain wall were the many nameless sounds that tell of animals herding for the night. The shepherd greeted them with the perfect courtesy of the Mexican.

”Senors, the camp is yours!”

Kut-le lifted the s.h.i.+vering Rhoda from her horse. The rain was lessening but the cold was still so great that Rhoda huddled gratefully by the little fire under the sheepskin shelter. Kut-le refused the Mexican's offer of tortillas and the man sat down to enjoy their society. He eyed Rhoda keenly.

”Ah! It is a senorita!” Then he gasped. ”It is perhaps the Senorita Rhoda Tuttle!”

Rhoda jumped to her feet.

”Yes! Yes! How did you know?”

Kut-le glared at the herder menacingly, but the little fellow did not see. He spoke up bravely, as if he had a message for Rhoda.

”Some people told me yesterday. They look for her everywhere!”

Rhoda's eyes lighted joyfully.

”Who? Where?” she cried.

Kut-le spoke concisely:

”You know nothing!” he said.

The Mexican looked into the Apache's eyes and s.h.i.+vered slightly.

”Nothing, of course, Senor,” he replied.

But Rhoda was not daunted.

”Who were they?” she repeated. ”What did they say? Where did they go?”

The herder glanced at Rhoda and shook his head.