"Yes," I replied, laughing a little: "I am getting ready for the
Nascaupees."
"They would not shoot you," he said gravely. "It would be us they
would kill if they took the notion. Whatever their conjurer tells
them to do, they will do."
"No," asserted Gilbert, who boasted some traditional knowledge of
the Nascaupees, "they would not kill you, Mrs. Hubbard. It would
be to keep you at their camp that they would kill us."
I had been laughing at George a little, but Gilbert's startling
announcement induced a sudden sobriety. As I glanced from one to
the other, the faces of the men were all unwontedly serious. There
was a whirl of thoughts for a moment, and then I asked, "What do
you think I shall be doing while they are killing you? You do not
need to suppose that because I will not kill rabbits, or ptarmigan,
or caribou, I should have any objection to killing a Nascaupee
Indian if it were necessary."
Nevertheless the meeting with the Indians had for me assumed a new
and more serious aspect, and, remembering their agony of fear lest
some harm befall me ere we reached civilisation again, I realised
how the situation seemed to the men.
