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"Gracious," I said "And here I thought the cold…"

"It’ll be warh soon," he assured iven the cra covered in order not to suffer frostbite in any exposed portions, and the fact that Jamie was able to lend only the ed quite satisfactorily nonetheless

What with one thing and another, I was rather preoccupied, though, and it was only during a temporary lull in the activities that I beca watched I lifted h the screen of herove and the snow-covered slope below

Jaroan

"Don’t stop," he ht I heard soain

At this, I did hear soh, low but distinct, directly above le of cloaks and discarded buckskins, while Ja aside the branches with a swoosh, pointing the pistol upward

Frorinning Ian, and four companions fro the i up at his nephew

"And what the devil are you doin’ here, Ian?"

"Why, I was on rinning hugely

Jamie eyed his nepheith "

The elk carcass had frozen in the night The sight of ice crystals frosting its blank eyes ht of death; that was quite beautiful, with the great dark body so still, crusted with snow--but at the thought that had I not yielded tofor Jaht well have been entitled "Dead Scots Indians"

The discussion at last concluded to their satisfaction, Ian informed me that they had decided to return to Anna Ooka, but would see us safely home, in return for a share of the elk h; they eviscerated it, leaving the cooling entrails in a heap of blue-gray coils, splotched with black blood After chopping off the head to further lessen the weight, two of the ether Ja that they ive him the sae a travois; the ht one sturdy pack mule to carry any skins they took

The weather had iround, and while the air was still crisp and cold, the sky was a blinding blue, and the forest coldly pungent with the scents of spruce and balsah one grove, that reira, and the mysterious band of Indians we had seen

"Ian," I said, catching up to him "Just before you and your friends found us on the mountainside,a band of Indians, with a Jesuit priest They weren’t froht have been?"

"Oh, aye, Auntie I ken all about them" He wiped athee Indians, he said, were Mohawk, come from far north The Tuscarora had been adopted by the Iroquois League some fifty years before, and there was a close association with the Mohaith frequent exchanges of visits between the two, both formal and informal

The present visit held ele Mohawk e ofwomen, they had deterht be found a to the proper clan," Ian explained "If she is the wrong clan, they canna be marrit"

"Like MacDonalds and Campbells, aye?" Ja "But that’s why they brought the priest wi’ them--if they found women, they could be married at once, and not have to sleep in a cold bed all the way hoed

"So theoodthe Mohawk, though"

"So they’d been to Anna Ooka?" I asked, curious "Why were you and your friends following thehtened the muffler of squirrel skins around his neck

"They naweto and his braves trust theue are afraid of the Mohawk--Christian or no"

It was near sunset e caht of the cabin I was cold and tired, but ht of the tiny horay creature named Clarence, saw us and brayed enthusiastically in welco the rest of the horses crowd up next to the rails, eager for food

"The horses look fine" Jamie, with a stockman’s eye, looked first to the anietting inside, getting war fed, as soon as possible

We invited Ian’s friends to stay, but they declined, unloading Jailance over the departing Mohawk