Not thick-skinned, her kind, when it came to showing
like and dislike, and she looked her pleasure for the honest girl she
was. Ay, a striking lass, and I didn't wonder that Chief George was
taken with her.
"Everything my way. Took the wind from his sails on the first leg. I
was for getting her aboard and sailing down Wrangel way till it blew
over, leaving him to whistle; but I wasn't to get her that easy. Seems
she was living with an uncle of hers--guardian, the way such things
go--and seems he was nigh to shuffling off with consumption or some sort
of lung trouble. He was good and bad by turns, and she wouldn't leave
him till it was over with. Went up to the tepee just before I left, to
speculate on how long it'd be; but the old beggar had promised her to
Chief George, and when he clapped eyes on me his anger brought on a
hemorrhage.
"'Come and take me, Tommy,' she says when we bid good-by on the beach.
'Ay,' I answers; 'when you give the word.' And I kissed her, white-man-
fashion and lover-fashion, till she was all of a tremble like a quaking
aspen, and I was so beside myself I'd half a mind to go up and give the
uncle a lift over the divide.
Pages:
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95