Sure enough before the sun went down, they saw a party of four Indians issue out on the little plain from the direction of up river.  Crossing the grass and dismounting, they turned their horses out and cached their saddles under the willows.

Then they proceeded afoot.  Colina waited until she was sure there were no more to follow; then mounting, she and Cora rode down to the trail.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE FINDING OF NESIS.

The afternoon was waning, and Colina, knowing she must have covered nearly sixty miles, began to keep a sharp lookout ahead.  They had had no adventures by the way, except that of sleeping under the stars without male protectors near, in itself an adventure to Colina.  Colina took it like everything else, as a matter of course.

Cora had been raised on the trail.  In her impatience to arrive Colina had somewhat scamped her horses’ rest, and the grass-fed beasts were tired.

Issuing from among the trees upon one of the now familiar grassy bottoms that bordered the river, they saw grazing horses and knew they were hard upon their destination.

A spur of the hills cut off the view up river.  Rounding it, the teepees spread before them.  They were contained in a semicircular hollow of the hills like an amphitheater, with the river running close beside.

Colina had decided that in boldness lay her best chance of success.  Clapping heels to her horse’s ribs, therefore, she rode smartly into the square, appearing in the very midst of the Indians before they were warned.  This village differed in no important respect from the others.  Some of the teepees were made of tanned hides in the old way.  The people were of the same stock, but even less sophisticated.  Few of these had even been to Fort Enterprise to trade.

The sudden appearance of Colina’s white face affected them something in the way of a miracle.

Every man dropped what he was about and stared with hanging jaw.  Others came running out of the teepees and stopped dead at the door.  For a moment or two there was no movement whatever in the square.

But they knew Gaviller’s daughter by repute, of course, and the word was passed around that it was she.  The tension relaxed.  They slowly gathered around, looking at her with no friendly eye.

Colina searched rapidly among them for one that might answer to the description of Nesis.  There was no girl that by any stretch of the imagination could have been called beautiful.  Not wishing to give them time to spirit her away, Colina suddenly raised her voice and cried:  “Nesis!”

There was no answer, but several heads in the crowd turned involuntarily toward a certain teepee.  Colina, perceiving the movement, wheeled her horse and loped across the square in that direction.

Cora followed, leading the pack-horse.  The Indians sidled after.  Approaching the teepee she had marked, Colina heard sounds of a muffled struggle inside.  Flinging herself off her horse and throwing up the flap, she saw a figure on the ground, held down by several old crones.