Wide-eyed she stared at the newcomer. Her face went deathly white, and the heart within her breast turned to ice, for instinctively she knew, by the wild, intense beauty of the woman, that she stood face to face with the Indian girl--the Jeanne of Bill Carmody's whispered words! Her brain took in the details with incredible rapidity; and the girl was still coming toward her as she noted the dazzling brightness of the great silvery wolf-skin that was flung about her shoulders and caught together at her soft throat; the mass of black hair, upon which the mist-beads sparkled like a million diamonds; the dark, liquid eyes, and the even, white teeth that glistened between the curving red lips. The girl was at her side now, and with a low cry threw herself upon her knees before the man, and stretched her arms toward him gropingly. "M's'u' Bill!" she cried, and the voice was sweet and soft; the words uttered with imploring intensity. And then in Ethel's ears was the voice of her husband. "Jeanne, Jeanne," he said; "why have you come? Speak, girl; why have you come to me?" At the sound of the name, the thought that at the very altar this woman's name was upon the lips of her husband, the hot blood surged to her face and the tiny fists clenched. She was about to speak, but was forestalled by the half-breed girl who had leaped to her feet and thrown her arms about Bill's neck and was speaking in short, stabbing words: "Come! Come now--with me! Oh, do not wait! Come--even now it may be too late!" The low voice quivered with excitement, and the man's hand patted her shoulder soothingly as he endeavored to quiet her. Ethel took a quick step forward, and the hard tone of her voice cut upon the air like the ring of tempered steel. "Who are you?" she cried. "Speak! What is this man to you?" The Indian girl turned and faced her, seeming for the first time aware of her presence. The dark, liquid eyes flashed as she drew herself to her full height. "To me, he is _everything_! I would die for him! _I love him!_" The tense tones rang through the long room where a hundred and fifty big men sat silent--hypnotized by the intense drama of the scene. With a lithe, swift movement the half-breed girl raised her hands to her bosom and tore at the fastenings of her hunting-shirt. There was the sound of popping buttons, the heavily embroidered shirt flew open, and there, gleaming cold and gray in the lamplight, upon the warm ivory of her bared breast lay a naked blade--the broken blade of a sheath knife! She broke the cord that held it suspended about her neck and extended the blade toward the man, uttering but a single word: "Come!" And as Bill's eyes fell upon the bit of metal his form stiffened and his fists clenched. "I will come--lead on!" he answered For in his mind rang the words of his solemn promise: "No people of the earth, and nothing that is upon the earth, nor of the earth, shall prevent me--and one day you will know that my words are true."