to the river."

"She should not. It will soon be dark, and she is all alone," said Emma
Two Bears, in a tone betraying some anxiety.




CHAPTER VI.

Cordelia Running Bid held her clothes about her with one hand, steering
with her feet, and reached the flats in safety. She arose and stood
still and looked toward the river to a space of open water on the near
side of a sandbar, half way over.

She took a few steps forward rather slowly, then her pace quickened more
and more, till she was running breathlessly, as if in fear of losing her
resolve to carry out some plan she was intent upon.

In rushing through a hollow lined with willow trees she slipped and
almost lost her footing, and in struggling to regain it she released her
hold upon a well-filled gingham bag which she had hid beneath her coat
and dropped it on the ground. She picked it up and hung it by the
draw-string on her arm, but with this interruption of her headlong
course there came a corresponding halt of purpose. So she turned aside
and walked a few yards down the hollow, where she found a log on which
to seat herself.

Presently she murmured in the passive monotone of a despairing Indian
girl: "Just like I have to stop and think before I do it. If I drown