“The inhuman wretch is out by the camp-fire,” the woman replied, bitterly.
Silvia was surprised by her manner of speech. She saw that the Indian woman entertained a feeling of intense dislike toward the chief.
“Then you do not respect the great chief,” said Silvia, “judging from your remarks.”
“No, I hate him!” she fairly hissed, “the inhuman, merciless outcast of his own race!”
“And do not his warriors like him?” asked Silvia.
“Yes; those whose hearts are vile as his,” Silver Voice answered, “and, dear girl,” she continued, coming closer and speaking lower, “if it’s in my power, and the power of Allacotah, you shall never, _never_ suffer captivity at his hands!”
Silvia’s face brightened; then it became clouded again as she said:
“But he told me he was going to sell me to a robber-captain--that the robber had promised him a great reward for me, but how a robber-captain here in the Black Hills knew me is quite a mystery.”
“Did he mention the robber-captain’s name?”
“Yes; I believe it was Dungarvon--Duval Dungarvon.”
“God have mercy!” exclaimed the woman, frantically. “Duval Dungarvon! Duval Dungarvon! Oh, dear girl, better take your own life than fall into the hands of that man. He is a fiend, a devil! It is not your beauty, nor his love for you that makes him desirous of possessing you, but it is to torture you, and grind, grind your father’s heart out for revenge--bitter, _bitter_, BITTER revenge!” and the beautiful woman fairly raved in her excitement.
Silvia was completely mystified by her strange words--her wild emotion.
“I do not understand you, Silver Voice,” she said.
Before the Indian woman could reply, a wild commotion among the savages outside arrested her attention. She turned and went out, and Silvia involuntarily arose and followed her.
The women were greatly surprised to see the savages, their faces convulsed with horror--their eyes lifted upward with a terrified stare, speechless and motionless. Following the direction indicated by their startled gaze, the women became equally as terrified.
Down the valley from the north floated in the air high above the tree-tops--far above the reach and power of man, an awful figure--the figure of a human skeleton, its ghastly proportions revealed by the flame and smoke emitted from the great sunken eyes, the distended nostrils and wide, grinning mouth. Great white arms beat and buffeted the air like the wings of a struggling vampire, while scream after scream rent the air.