Chapter 1 A
STRANGE GIRL.“Well, by the help of either her red gods or devils, she can
swim, anyway!”
This explosive statement was made one June morning on the banks
of the Kootenai, and the speaker, after a steady gaze, relinquished
his field-glass to the man beside him.
“Can she make it?” he asked.
A grunt was the only reply given him. The silent watcher was too
much interested in the scene across the water.
Shouts came to them—the yells of frightened Indian children; and
from the cone-shaped dwellings, up from the water, the Indian women
were hurrying. One, reaching the shore first, sent up a shrill cry,
as she perceived that, from the canoe where the children played,
one had fallen over, and was being swept away by that
swift-rushing, chill water, far out from the reaching
