When he again awakened it was evening and camp had been made. Fires
danced and crackled all up and down the reach of shore set like a half-
moon of pearl in a sea of emerald, where the forest shouldered down to
the stream, and the smell of cooking meat was poignantly sweet. Women
were busy at the work of the camp, carrying wood, mending the fires,
tending the kettles swung from forked sticks, and scolding the
scrambling children.
Here and there a half-naked Indian stalked silently, his long feather
slanting in the light, but for the most part the warriors were gathered
in a silent mass a little way apart where the big tepee had been set
up.
The clouds were gone from his brain, and he was keenly conscious of
hunger.
He was still bound, though not so tightly, some of the thongs having
been taken off entirely, and he found that he could sit up with
comparative ease, though his hands were still fast behind him and his
ankles tied.
There was no pacing guard this time, distance and possession making
such precaution needless, for well the Nakonkirhirinons knew that none
from the little post on the Assiniboine would attempt rescue in face of
so great a horde as an entire tribe.
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