Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/63

Rh soon as possible. He was away from Kynox when I left.”

“And you can do nothing for him?” the girl asked.

“Nothing, I am sorry to say.”

“Then he must have the missionary. He will come, I know.”

“The missionary? Where is he?”

“At ‘The Gap.’ I shall go for him. He will come for me. He is a good doctor, and he will pray and make him well.”

The girl rose to her feet as if to hurry away. But Marion caught her by the arm and told her to sit down.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Zell.”

“What else? What is your father’s name?”

“Sam Rixton, but people always call him ‘Sam, the Siwash.’ My mother is an Indian. Her name is Susie.”

“And have you lived here all your life?”

“Oh, no. I was put in the Mission school at The Gap when very young, and left only a year ago.”

“So that is where you learned to speak English so well, I suppose.”

“Yes, the missionary and his wife were good to me. I guess they thought more of me than of all the others. They wanted to keep me and take me back to England. They came from there, you see.”

“But you preferred to stay here?”

“I wanted to go until I met Tim,” was the low reply. “After that nothing could drag me away from the North. Oh, we were so happy until that trouble came.” The girl gave a deep sigh as she looked longingly upon the face of the man before her.

“Where did you first meet him?” Marion asked.