CHAPTER VII BETHELDA “Well!” I exclaimed; “why have you not flown?” “And where?” she demanded. “Back to your Kalkar friends,” I replied. “It is because you are not a Kalkar that I did not fly,” she said. “How do you know that I am no Kalkar,” I demanded, “and why, if I am not, should you not fly from me, who must be an enemy of your people?” “You called him ‘Kalkar’ as you charged him,” she explained, “and one Kalkar does not call another Kalkar that. Neither am I a Kalkar.” I thought then of what the Or-tis had told me of the thousand Americans who had wished to desert the Kalkars and join themselves with us. This girl must be of them, then. “Who are you?” I asked. “My name is Bethelda,” she replied; “and who are you?” She looked me squarely in the eyes with a fearless frankness that was anything but Kalkarian. It was the first time that I had had a good look at her. By The Flag! She was not difficult to look at. She had large, gray-green eyes and heavy lashes and a cheerful countenance that seemed even now to be upon the verge of laughter. There was something almost boyish about her and yet she was all girl. I stood looking at her for so long a time without speaking that a frown of impatience clouded her brow. “I asked you who you are,” she reminded me. “I am Julian 20th, The Red Hawk,” I replied, and I thought for an instant that her eyes went a little wider and that she looked frightened; but I must have been mistaken, for I was to learn later that it took more than a name to frighten Bethelda. “Tell me where you are going,” I said, “and I will ride with you, lest you be again attacked.” “I do not know where to go,” she replied, “for wherever I go I meet enemies.” “Where are your people?” I demanded. “I fear that they are all slain,” she told me, a quiver in her voice. “But where were you going? You must have been going somewhere.” “I was looking for a place to hide,” she said. “The Nipons would let me stay with them if I could find them. My people were always kind to them. They would be kind to me.” “Your people were of the Kalkars, even though you say you are no Kalkar, and the Nipons hate them. They would not take you in.” “My people were Americans. They lived among the Kalkars, but they were not Kalkars. We lived at the foot of these hills for almost a hundred years and we often met the Nipons. They did not hate us, though they hated the Kalkars about us.” “Do you know Saku?” I asked. “Since I was a little child I have known Saku, the Chief,” she replied. “Come, then,” I said, “I will take you to Saku.” “You know him? He is near?” “Yes, come!”