“Hear to her, hear to this shameless woman!” cried the fanatical and self-constituted saviour of the metis, gesticulating and trying, as he always did, to work upon the easily-roused feelings of his semi-savage following.  “She convicts herself out of her own mouth; she must suffer.  She is young and fair to look upon, but she is the daughter of Douglas, the great friend of the English, and therefore evil of heart.  Moreover, she defies me, even me, to whom St Peter himself appeared in the Church of St. James at Washington, Columbia!  Take her hence and keep her as a prisoner until we decide what fate shall be hers.  In the days of the old prophets the dogs licked the blood of a woman from the stones—­of a woman who deserved better than she.”

With a wave of his hand the arch rebel, who was yet to pay the penalty of his inordinate vanity and scheming with his life, dismissed the prisoner and her captors.  He instructed an Irish renegade and member of his cabinet, called Nolin, to see to it that the prisoner was kept under close arrest until her fate was decided upon—­which would probably be before morning.  Nolin told some of Katie’s relatives to take charge of Dorothy.  He himself, to tell the truth, did not particularly care what became of her one way or the other.  Already this gentleman was trying to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare.

Dorothy looked around the improvised court-house in the vague hope of finding some one whom she might have known in the days of peace, and whose intervention would count for something.  But alas! the vision of dark, cruel and uncompromising faces that met her gaze, gave her no hope.  They had all been wrought up to such a high pitch of excitement that murder itself was but an item in their programme.  Her heart sank within her, but still her mind was active.  She was not one of the sort who submit tamely to what appears to be the inevitable.  She came of a fighting stock—­of a race that had struggled much, and prevailed.

Katie’s male kinsman, the huge half-breed and the officious redskin, again seized Dorothy and hurried her away, followed by the curious, straggling mob.  Arrived, at length, at a long, low log-house on the outskirts of the town, they hammered on the closed door for admittance.

CHAPTER IX

THE DWARF AND THE BEAR

Dorothy noticed that there was a light in the windows of this house, and wondered how it was that the occupants seemed to be quietly staying at home while evidently all the half-breed inhabitants of the town were making a night of it.  She also noticed that when her guides had knocked they drew somewhat back from the doorway, and that the motley crowd which had been pressing close behind followed their example.  They also ceased their noisy talk and laughter while they waited for the door to be opened.  Only Katie, the flouted belle who had been following them up, did not seem to possess the same diffidence as the others, but stood with one hand on the door, listening.  Dorothy became strangely curious as to the inmates of this isolated house.