So I will say only that one time I awoke.
She told me later that she did not know whether it was two or three days
we had been there thus. She told me that now and then she left me and
crept to the top of the ridge to watch the Indian camp. She saw them
come in from the chase, their horses loaded with meat. Then, as the sun
came out, they went to drying meat, and the squaws began to scrape the
hides. As they had abundant food they did not hunt more than that one
day, and no one rode in our direction. Our horse she kept concealed and
blindfolded until dark, when she allowed him to feed. This morning she
had removed the blanket from his head, because now, as she told me with
exultation, the Indians had broken camp, mounted and driven away, all of
them, far off toward the west. She had cut and dried the remainder of
our antelope meat, taking this hint from what we saw the Indians doing,
and so most of our remaining meat had been saved.
I looked at her now, idly, dully. I saw that her belt was drawn tighter
about a thinner waist. Her face was much thinner and browner, her eyes
more sunken. The white strip of her lower neck was now brick red. I
dared not ask her how she had gotten through the nights, because she had
used the blanket to blindfold the horse.
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