She warned them off with a careless "_ukishee_." But they did not go.
Some ten pairs of eyes, full of unmistakable menace, followed her every
movement. She let down the tent flaps and tied them together, taking her
time about it. She was angry, and growing angrier. It was unendurable to
her to be disobeyed, to have her authority put at naught on the few
occasions when she chose to exercise it. She could keep her temper over
anything but that. And her temper was of the silent sort, rolling on and
on, like a great cold swell at sea, to break finally against the first
obstacle with an uncontrollable force. She had never been really angry
but twice in her life. Once when she was in school, and when a teacher
she liked, judging her by her frequent and unblushing lies to a teacher
she disliked, doubted her word upon an occasion when she was really
speaking the truth. It was after that that she had written to her
guardian that she would run away. The second time had been when Brewster
had tried to bully her. She knew that it would soon be a third time, if
the Indians went on annoying her. And she was far more afraid of what
she might do than of what they might do. But she took off the waist of
her gown and began to brush her hair, not being in the least squeamish
about letting the Apaches see her fine white arms and neck, if they were
to open the flaps again.
Which was what they presently did. She expected it. A long, wrinkled
hand reached in, feeling about for the knots of the tape. She stood
still with the brush in her hands, watching. Another hand came, and
another. She caught up her quirt from the cot, then realizing that the
sting of the lash would only prove an exasperation and weaken her
authority, if she had any whatever,--and she believed that she had,--she
threw it down. The cook was probably in the kitchen tent and did not
know what was going on. And she would have died before she would have
called for help.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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