"Misjudged you? Shamed you? Was that all? You've misjudged and shamed me for so long----" A burst of savage hoots renewed interrupted. "They're coming!" She knelt up, to peer; I peered. The Indians had deployed, leaving the chief lying upon the ground, their fierce countenances glaring at our asylum. How clear their figures were, in the sunshine, limned against the lazy yellowish sand, under the peaceful blue! "They'll surround us. I might parley for myself, but I can do nothing for you." "Parley, then," I bade. "Save yourself, any way you can." She drew in, whitening as if I had struck her. "And you accuse me of having misjudged you! I save myself--merely myself? What do you intend to do? Fight?" "As long as you are with me; and after. They'll never take me alive; and take you they shall not if I can prevent it. Damn them, if they get you I mean to make them pay for you. You're all I have." "You'd rather I'd stay? You need me? Could I help?" "Need you!" I groaned. "I'm just finding out, too late." "And help? How? Quick! Could I?" "By staying; by not surrendering yourself--your honor, my honor. By saying that you'd rather stay with me, for life, for death, here, anywhere--after I've said that I'm not deaf, blind, dumb, ungrateful. I love you; I'd rather die for you than live without you." Such a glory glowed in her haggard face and shone from her brimming eyes. "We will fight, we will fight!" she chanted. "Now I shall not leave you. Oh, my man! Had you kissed me last night we would have known this longer. We have so little time." She turned from my lips. "Not now. They're coming. Fight first; and at the end, then kiss me, please, and we'll go together." The furious yells from that world outside vibrated among our rocks. The Sioux all were in motion, except the prostrate figure of the chief. Straight onward they charged, at headlong gallop, to ride over us like a grotesquely tinted wave, and the dull drumming of their ponies' hoofs beat a diapason to the shrill clamor of their voices. It was enough to cow, but she spoke steadily. "You must fire," she said. "Hurry! Fire once, maybe twice, to split them. I don't think they'll rush us, yet." So I rose farther on my knees and fired once--and again, pointblank at them with the heavy Colt's. It worked a miracle. Every mother's son of them fell flat upon his pony; they all swooped to right and to left as if the bullets had cleaved them apart in the center; and while I gaped, wondering, they swept past at long range, half on either flank, pelting in bullet and near-spent arrow. She forced me down. "Low, low," she warned. "They'll circle. They hold their scalps dearly. We can only wait. That was three. You have fifteen shots left, for them; then, one for me, one for you. You understand?" "I understand," I replied. "And if I'm disabled----?" She answered quietly. "It will be the same. One for you, one for me."