Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/285

Rh to handle a serious situation. He has never failed yet.”

“Perhaps it will be different, though, when he meets Bill, the Slugger,” Marion suggested. “He is a desperate man, so I have heard.”

“He may be all that, but what can he do against those two sleuth-hounds of the trails? He won’t have even a look-in.”

“But perhaps he will see them coming, hide, and shoot them down before they can do anything.”

Both Hugo and the doctor laughed at her fears, and told her not to worry. But worry she did, and she imagined the sergeant lying in the snow with no one to help him. She told herself that she was very foolish, but she could not banish the thought. Anyway, she felt that she must hide her fears, so she said nothing more, and went quietly about her work.

During the afternoon a number of Indians came to the house, and to these the missionary talked in the native tongue. Marion could not understand anything of the conversation, but Zell knew, and she interpreted in a whisper what was being said.

“The Gikhi is saying how pleased he is to see the Indians back,” she explained to the nurse. “He is asking how they made out with their trapping, and if they brought in many pelts. They are telling him that they have done very well, but that they haven’t had as good success as they used to when they held services every night in their lodges. They are asking the Gikhi to forgive them, and he says he will, but that they must ask God to forgive them. They say they will, and are now asking for a service to-night in the church. The Gikhi tells them how pleased he is, and that he will be there to speak to all the Indians.”