Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/23

 with open curiosity. Just as he came to the steps, two figures shuffled silently past him, one,  the Indian he had seen at the station, the other,  a broad-shouldered, broad-waisted woman stooping under the heavy burden she carried on her  back. The man, erect and unimpeded, strode quickly forward, but she stopped a moment to  readjust the deerskin strap which passed over  her forehead and supported the heavy weight of  her pack. She turned her swarthy face toward Hugh and greeted him with a broad, friendly  smile, then bowed her head once more and  trudged on after her master. The boy, not used to the ways of Indian husbands and their wives,  stood staring after the two in shocked astonishment.

“That’s Kaniska, the best guide around here, and his squaw,” he heard one of the men say  to another. “She’s the only Indian hereabouts the only one I ever heard of, really, that smiles  at every one she meets. They are all of them queer ducks; no matter how well you know them  you never can tell what they are thinking about.