“Yes?”

“Yes.  And of one thing I am glad.  I shall expect no consideration at your hands because I am a woman.  You will fight me as you would fight a man.”

“Fight you?  Why should I fight you?  I have no quarrel with you.  If you choose to build a school here, or even a trading-post, I have no disposition—­no right to gainsay you.  You will soon tire of your experiment, and no harm will be done—­the North will be unchanged.  You are nothing to me.  I care nothing for your opinion of me—­considering its source, I am surprised it is not even worse.”

“Impossible!  And do not think that I have not had corroborative evidence.  Ocular evidence of your brutal treatment of Mr. Lapierre—­and did I not see with my own eyes the destruction of your whiskey?”

“What nonsense are you speaking now?  My whiskey!  Woman—­never yet have I owned any whiskey.”

Chloe sneered—­“And the Indians—­do they not hate you?”

“Yes, those Indians do—­and well they may.  Most of them have crossed my path at some time or other.  And most of them will cross it again—­at Lapierre’s instigation.  Some of them I shall have to kill.”

“You speak lightly of murder.”

“Murder?”

“Yes, murder!  The murder of poor, ignorant savages.  It is an ugly word, isn’t it?  But why dissimulate?  At least, we can call a spade a spade.  These men are human beings.  Their right to life and happiness is as good as yours or mine, and their souls are as——­”

“Black as hell!  Woman, from LeFroy down, you have collected about you as pretty a gang of cut-throats and outlaws as could have been found in all the North.  Lapierre has seen to that.  I do not envy you your school.  But as long as you can be turned to their profit your personal safety will be assured.  They are too cunning, by far, to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.”

“What a pretty speech!  Your polish—­your savoir vivre, does you credit, I am sure.”

“I do not understand what you are saying, but——­”

“There are many things you do not understand now that perhaps you will later.  For instance, in the matter of the Indians—­your Indians, I believe you call them—­you have warned, or commanded, possibly, would be the better word——­”

“Yes,” interrupted the man, “that is the better word——­”

“Have commanded me not to—­what was it you said—­molest, question, or proselyte them.”

MacNair nodded.  “I said that.”

“And I say this!” flashed the girl.  “I shall use every means in my power to induce your Indians to attend my school.  I shall teach them that they are free.  That they owe allegiance and servitude to no man.  That the land they inhabit is their land.  That they are their own masters.  I shall offer them education, that they may be able to compete on equal terms with the white men when this land ceases to lie beyond the outposts.