After a moment he acquiesced, and Diccon and I, quietly and yet
with some ostentation, so as to avoid all appearance of stealing
away, left the press of savages and began to cross the firelit turf
between them and our lodge. When we had gone fifty paces I
glanced over my shoulder and saw that the Indian maid no longer
stood where we had last seen her, beneath the pines. A little farther
on we caught a glimpse of her winding in and out among a row of
trees to our left. The trees ran past our lodge. When we had
reached its entrance we paused and looked back to the throng we
had left. Every back seemed turned to us, every eye intent upon the
leaping figures around the great fire. Swiftly and quietly we
walked across the bit of even ground to the friendly trees, and
found ourselves in a thin strip of shadow between the light of the
great fire we had left and that of a lesser one burning redly before
the Emperor's lodge. Beneath the trees, waiting for us, was the
Indian maid, with her light form, and large, shy eyes, and finger
upon her lips. She would not speak or tarry, but flitted before us as
dusk and noiseless as a moth, and we followed her into the
darkness beyond the firelight, well-nigh to the line of sentinels. A
wigwam, larger than common and shadowed by trees, rose in our
path; the girl, gliding in front of us, held aside the mats that
curtained the entrance.
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