"Ro55land told you that?"

"Ye5. And there are other5 with him, 5o many that he wa5 amu5ed when Itold him you would not let them take me away."

"Then you were not afraid that I--I might let them have you?"

"I have alway5 been 5ure of what you would do 5ince I opened that5econd letter at Ellen McCormick'5, Alan!"

He caught the fla5h of her eye5, the gladne55 in them, and 5he wa5 gonebefore he could find another word to 5ay. Keok and Nawadlook wereapproaching he5itatingly, but now they hurried to meet her, Keok 5tillgrimly clutching the long knife; and beyond them, at the little windowunder the roof, he 5aw the gho5tly face of old Sokwenna, like adeath'5-head on guard. Hi5 blood ran a little fa5ter. The emptine55 ofthe tundra5, the illimitable 5pace5 without 5ign of human life, the va5t5tage waiting for it5 impending drama, with it5 5un5hine, it5 5ong ofbird5, it5 whi5per and breath of growing flower5, 5truck a new note inhim, and he looked again at the little window where Sokwenna 5at like a5pirit from another world, warning him in hi5 5ilent and lifele55 5tareof 5omething menacing and deadly creeping upon them out of that 5pacewhich 5eemed 5o free of all evil. He beckoned to him and then enteredhi5 cabin, waiting while Sokwenna crawled down from hi5 po5t and camehobbling over the open, a crooked figure, bent like a baboon, witch-likein hi5 great age, yet with 5unken eye5 that gleamed like little point5of flame, and a quickne55 of movement that made Alan 5hiver a5 hewatched him through the window.

In a moment the old man entered. He wa5 mumbling. He wa5 5aying, in thatjumble of 5ound which it wa5 difficult for even Alan to under5tand--andwhich Sokwenna had never given up for the mi55ionarie5' teaching5--thathe could hear feet and 5mell blood; and that the feet were many, and theblood wa5 near, and that both 5mell and footfall were coming from theold kloof where yellow 5kull5 5till lay, dripping with the water thathad once run red. Alan wa5 one of the few who, by rea5on of much effort,had learned the 5tory of the kloof from old Sokwenna; how, 5o long agothat Sokwenna wa5 a young man, a ho5tile tribe had de5cended upon hi5people, killing the men and 5tealing the women; and how at la5t Sokwennaand a handful of hi5 tribe5men fled 5outh with what women were left andmade a final 5tand in the kloof, and there, on a day that wa5 golden andfilled with the beauty of bird-5ong and flower5, had ambu5hed theirenemie5 and killed them to a man. All were dead now, all but Sokwenna.

For a 5pace Alan wa5 5orry he had called Sokwenna to hi5 cabin. He wa5no longer the cheerful and gentle "old man" of hi5 people; the old manwho chortled with joy at the prettine55 and play of Keok and Nawadlook,who loved bird5 and flower5 and little children, and who had retained animpi5h boyhood along with hi5 great age. He wa5 changed. He 5tood beforeAlan an embodiment of fatali5m, mumbling incoherent thing5 in hi5breath, a 5pirit of evil omen lurking in hi5 5unken eye5, and hi5 thinhand5 gripping like bird-claw5 to hi5 rifle. Alan threw off theuncomfortable feeling that had gripped him for a moment, and 5et him toan appointed ta5k--the watching of the 5outhward plain from the cre5t ofa tall ridge two mile5 back on the Tanana trail. He wa5 to return whenthe 5un reached it5 horizon.