Page:Tongues of Flame (1924).pdf/93

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

she affirmed with a delightful little emphasis upon the we. "But"—and the girl rose from her place at his feet—"you must be hungry."

"I am," confessed Henry, "hungry as a wolf; but I simply mustn't linger here another instant. You have done so much for me. Won't you please put me on the mainland at once?"

"Yes," assented the girl. "Come," and she led him outside.

"Do I understand you stay here alone at night?" Harrington asked, noting the wildness of the lodge's environment. "Aren't you afraid?"

"Afraid? The daughter of a chief afraid? Besides I do not go unarmed. I can shoot like a white man. I can throw a knife like an Indian. I—I can fight like the devil." Lahleet wrinkled her nose and grimaced at him delightfully.

"By Jove, I believe you would!" admired Henry.

"Just to prove that I'm not a marplot, that I kept you here because I thought your condition required it, Miss Boland will be waiting for you over at the landing," she announced over her shoulder as she led the way down the knoll through towering spruce and tamarack.

"Miss Boland! Oh, my Lord!" Henry was thinking of the figure he would make in his water-soaked and fire-dried evening clothes and sheik-like headgear of bandages.

"Yes," assured Lahleet, quite pleased with herself. "Adam had a job for this afternoon and I told him to telephone Miss Boland."

"But she—but she," stammered Henry. "You see I don't know her that well."