'Yes!' cried the blond girl.
'Put them out!' cried Radish, pointing to the two girls, and to Carrot and Cabbage. 'Put them all out!'
'Yellow Knives!' cried a man near the door.
There was an instant silence in the Waniyanpi lodge. Radish turned pale.
'There are two of them,' said the man. 'They are at the entrance to the campground.'
'What is going on?' Hci asked Cuwignaka.
Cuwignaka spoke briefly to him, and he nodded. Cuwignaka and Hci then stood up. I stepped away from Mira. Cuwignaka, Hci and I exchanged glances. We loosened our weapons. We had not counted on the appearance of Yellow Knives.
'I will see what they want,' said Pumpkin. He turned about and left us.
'They will not go away,' said Radish. 'I know it!'
'What do you think they want?' I asked her.
'I do not know,' she said. 'Food? Shelter? They make demands on us as they please.'
'They take what they want,' said a man.
'Am I pretty?' asked the dark-haired girl of Carrot.
'YEs,' he said, 'oh, yes! You are pretty! You are beautiful!'
'Am I pretty?' asked the blond girl of Cabbage.
'Yes,' he said. 'You, too, are beautiful!'
'Take me in your arms and put your lips to mine,' said the dark-haired girl to Carrot.
'But that would be to touch you!' he said.
'I am naked,' she said. 'Kiss me, I beg you.'
'That is touching!' he whispered.
'I cannot be a woman if you will not be a man,' she said.
He took her in his arms and they kissed. The blond girl, too, then, was in the arms of Cabbage.
'You are fools!' said Radish.
Carrot and Cabbage, then Carrot with his arm about the dark-haired girl and Cabbage with his arm about the blond girl, turned, with the rest of us, to regard the threshold.
It was quiet in the lodge of the waniyanpi.
I heard the fire crackle in the fire hole.
I glanced at the two girls, one with Carrot, the other with Cabbage.
They had stripped themselves. They were clearly slaves. It was now only a question of who would be their masters. Normally red savages are not interested in Waniyanpi women but I had little doubt that in the case of these two weches the Yellow Knives would be prepared to make an exception. They were desireable and beautiful; this was not because of their mere nudity but rater, I think, because of something else, something which had taken place within them, something psychological; tis might perhaps best be characterized as a surrender to their womanhood; in any event they were now no longer were Waniyanpi females but prizes and treasures; they were now eminently worthy of having thier wirsts bound before their bodies and being led behind a master's kaiila. I did not think that the Yellow Knives would see fit to neglect them; only too obviously were they now ready to be put beneath the will of a man. I observed them, and Carrot and Cabbage. I wondered if Carrot and Cabbage would oject, if the Yellow Knives entered and, finding the girls of intrest, and deciding to take them, tied them and led them away. I supposed not, for they were Waniyanpi males. Then I looked at their eyes. Their eyes were stern. I smiled to myself. Perhaps, after all, they were men.
'They will enter,' said Radish. 'I know it!'
'You must hide,' said a man.
'No,' I said.
'If they find you here, they will kill you,' said a man.
'No,' I said, 'if they find me here, it is they who will die.'
'You must leave!' said Radish.
'No,' I said.
'It is not just you who are in danger,' said Radish. 'Do you not understand? They will thnk that we have welcomed you!'
'You have,' I said. 'The meal was superb. Thank you.'
'They may not just want to kill you,' she said. 'They may wish to kill us all!'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'You must leave,' she said. 'Your presence here jeopardizes us all!'
'I do not think so,' I said.
'Leave!' said Radish.
'You cannot expect them to just walk out,' said a man. 'What about the Yellow Knives?'
'Perhaps they could escape out the back,' said a man. 'Digging out, under the logs.'
'I do not think there is time for that,' said another.
'Too,' said another, 'it might be difficult to conceal the signs of such an escape, so quickly.
'True,' agreed another.
'You are right!' cried Radish. 'If they are caught leaving, or if signs of their escape are found, it will be clear to the Yellow Knives, in either case, that they were here.'
'That seems true,' said a man.
'There is a chance!' said Radish.
The Waniyanpi regarded her, with intrest.
'There is only one thing to do!' she said. 'I see it now, clearly!'
'What is that?' asked a man.
'Seize them,' she cried wildly, pointing at us. 'Seize them!'
No one moved.
'Seize them!' she cried. 'Do you want to die? Do you want to be killed? Seize them!'
'Why?' asked a man.
'I do not want to die!' she cried. 'I do not want to be killed by Yellow Knives!'
The Waniyanpi looked at one another.
'Seize them, bind them!' she cried.
'Why?' asked a man.
'That they may be turned over to Yellow Knives, you fool!' she cried. 'We can pretend that we have captured them. We were only waiting for Yellow Knives to come to the compound, that we might deliver them to them!'
'The Yellow Knives would kill them,' said a man.
'Yes,' said Radish, 'bu we would be spared! We would be alive! Do you not see? It is our only chance!'
'We will not do this,' said a man.
'Carrot,' said Radish, 'seize them.'
'No,' said Carrot.
'Cabbage,' said Radish, 'seize them!'
'No,' said Cabbage.
'I command it!' cried Radish.
'No,' said Carrot.
'No,' said Cabbage.
'Someone is coming!' said a man near the threshold.
Hci went to one side of the threshold. Cuwignaka went to the other. I remained where I was. They drew their knives.
'Do not strike!' I said to them.
Pumpkin stood in the threshold. He carried a feathered lance. I recognized it. It was one of the two which the Waniyanpi had retrieved in the area of the battle, some weeks ago, between the soldiers and the savages. Apparently this lance, at least, had been saved. I was startled to see it again. I had not realized that the Waniyanpi would have kept it.
The point of the lance was bloody.
