world—­for her.  She was an amazingly spontaneous little creature, full of courage and a fierce determination to fight some one, but probably to-day or to-morrow she would have been forced to turn homeward, quite exhausted with her adventure, and nibbling roots along with Tara to keep herself alive.  The thought of her hunger and of the dire necessity in which he had found her, drove the smile from his lips.  He was finishing his pack when she left the bear and came to him.

“If we are to get over the mountain before dark we must hurry,” she said.  “See—­it is a big mountain!”

She pointed to a barren break in the northward range, close up to the snow-covered peaks.

“And it’s cold up there when night comes,” she added.

“Can you make it?” David asked.  “Aren’t you tired?  Your feet sore?  We can wait here until morning....”

“I can climb it,” she cried, with an excitement which he had not seen in her before.  “I can climb it—­and travel all night—­to tell Brokaw and Hauck I don’t belong to them any more, and that we’re going away!  Brokaw will be like a mad beast, and before we go I’ll scratch his eyes out!”

“Good Lord!” gasped David under his breath.

“And if Hauck swears at me I’ll scratch his out!” she declared, trembling in the glorious anticipation of her vengeance.  “I’ll ...  I’ll scratch his out, anyway, for what he did to Nisikoos!”

David stared at her.  She was looking away from him, her eyes on the break between the mountains, and he noticed how tense her slender body had become and how tightly her hands were clenched.

“They won’t dare to touch me or swear at me when you are there,” she added, with sublime faith.

She turned in time to catch the look in his face.  Swiftly the excitement faded out of her own.  She touched his arm, hesitatingly.

“Wouldn’t ... you want me ... to scratch out their eyes?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“It wouldn’t do,” he said.  “We must be very careful.  We mustn’t let them know you ran away.  We must tell them you climbed up the mountain, and got lost.”

“I never get lost,” she protested.

“But we must tell them that just the same,” he insisted.  “Will you?”

She nodded emphatically.

“And now, before we start, tell me why they haven’t followed you?”

“Because I came over the mountain,” she replied, pointing again toward the break.  “It’s all rock, and Tara left no marks.  They wouldn’t think we’d climb over the range.  They’ve been looking for us in the other valley if they have hunted for us at all.  We were going to climb over that range, too.”  She turned so that she was pointing to the south.

“And then?”

“There are people over there.  I’ve heard Hauck talk about them.”

“Did you ever hear him speak of a man by the name of Tavish?” he asked, watching her closely.