Out of the muskeg they came into the woods. A flake of snow fell on
Jessie's cheek and chilled her blood. For she knew that if it came on
to snow before Onistah took the trail or even before he reached the
place to which West was taking her, the chances of a rescue would be
very much diminished. A storm would wipe out the tracks they had made.
"Swing back o' the rock and into the brush," West growled. Then, as
she took the narrow trail through the brush that had grown up among
half a dozen small down trees, he barked a question: "Whadjasay yore
Injun name was?"
"My name is Jessie McRae," she answered with a flash of angry pride.
"You know who I am--the daughter of Angus McRae. And if you do me any
harm, he'll hunt you down and kill you like a wolf."
He caught her by the arm and whirled the girl round. His big yellow
canines snapped like tusks and he snarled at her through clenched
jaws. "Did you hear yore master's voice? I said, what was yore squaw
name?"
She almost shrieked from the pain of his fingers' savage clutch into
her flesh. The courage died out of her arteries.
"Sleeping Dawn they called me."
"Too long," he pronounced. "I'll call you Dawn." The sight of her
terror of him, the foretaste of the triumph he was to enjoy, restored
him for a moment to a brutal good-humor. "An' when I yell 'Dawn' at
you o' mornin's, it'll be for you to hump yoreself an' git up to build
the fires and rustle breakfast. I'll treat you fine if you behave, but
if you git sulky, you'll taste the dog-whip. I'm boss. You'll have
a heluva time if you don't come runnin' when I snap my fingers.
Un'erstand?"
She broke down in a wailing appeal to whatever good there was in him.
"Let me go back to Father! I know you've broke prison. If you're good
to me, he'll help you escape. You know he has friends everywhere.
They'll hide you from the red-coats. He'll give you an outfit to get
away--money--anything you want. Oh, let me go, and--and--"
He grinned, and the sight of his evil mirth told her she had failed.
"Didn't I tell you I'd git you right some day? Didn't I promise Angus
McRae I'd pay him back aplenty for kickin' me outa his hide camp?
Ain't you the lil' hell-cat that busted my whiskey-kegs, that ran to
the red-coat spy an' told him where the cache was, that shot me up
when I set out to dry-gulch him, as you might say? Where do you figure
you got a license to expect Bully West to listen to Sunday-school pap
about being good to you? You're my squaw, an' lucky at that you got a
real two-fisted man. Hell's hinges! What's eatin' you?"
"Never!" she cried. "It's true what I told you once. I'd rather die.
Oh, if you've got a spark of manhood in you, don't make me kill
myself. I'm just a girl. If I ever did you wrong, I'm sorry. I'll make
it right. My father--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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