Laughing Bill Hyde | Page 5

in the world did you learn to speak such good English?"
"A missionary took an interest in me when I was a little girl. He sent
me to Carlisle."
Laughing Bill had been an attentive listener, now he ventured to say: "I
know this Carlisle. He's a swell football player, or something."
Ponatah smiled, showing a row of small, white teeth. "Carlisle is an
Indian school."
"What made you come back?" Thomas inquired, curiously.
Ponatah shrugged her shoulders. "There was an end to the money.
What could I do? At first I thought I'd be able to help my people, but--I
couldn't. They will learn from the white people, but not from one of
their own kind."
"Your parents--?"
"They died when I was a baby. Mary took me in." The girl spoke in a
flat, emotionless tone.
"It must be tough to come back to this, now that you know what life
really is," said Thomas, after a time.
Ponatah's eyes were dark with tragedy when she turned them to the

speaker. "God!" she cried, unexpectedly, then abruptly she faced the
window once more. It was a moment before she went on in fierce
resentment:
"Why didn't they leave me as they found me? Why did they teach me
their ways, and then send me back to this--this dirt and ignorance and
squalor? Sometimes I think I can't stand it. But what can I do? Nobody
understands. Mary can't see why I'm different from her and the others.
She has grown rich, with her reindeer; she says if this is good enough
for her it should be good enough for me. As for the white men who
come through, they can't, or they won't, understand. They're hateful to
me. Petersen, the mail-carrier, for instance! I don't know why I'm
telling you this. You're strangers. You're probably just like Petersen."
"I know why you're telling us," Thomas said, slowly. "It's because
I--because we're not like Petersen and the others; it's because I--we can
help you."
"Help me?" sneered the girl. "How?"
"I don't know, yet. But you're out of place here. There's a place for you
somewhere; I'll find it."
Ponatah shook her head wearily. "Mary says I belong here, with my
people."
"No. You belong with white people--people who will treat you well."
This time the girl smiled bitterly. "They have treated me worse than my
own people have. I know them, and--I hate them."
"Ain't you the sore-head, now?" Laughing Bill murmured. "You got a
hundred-per-cent. grouch, but if the old medicine-man says he'll put
you in right, you bet your string of beads he'll do it. He's got a gift for
helpin' down-and-outers. You got class, Kid; you certainly rhinestone
this whole bunch of red men. Why, you belong in French heels and a
boodwar cap; that's how I dope you."

"There must be a chance for a girl like you in Nome," Thomas
continued, thoughtfully. "You'd make a good hand with children.
Suppose I try to find you a place as governess?"
"Would you?" Ponatah's face was suddenly eager. "Children? Oh yes!
I'd work my fingers to the bone. I--I'd do anything--"
"Then I'll do what I can."
For some time longer the three of them talked, and gradually into the
native girl's eyes there came a light, for these men were not like the
others she had met, and she saw the world begin to unfold before her.
When at last they left she laid a hand upon the doctor's arm and said,
imploringly:
"You won't forget. You--promise?"
"I promise," he told her.
"He don't forget nothing," Bill assured her, "and if he does I'll see that
he don't."
After they had gone Ponatah stood motionless for a long time, then she
whispered, breathlessly:
"Children! Little white children! I'll be very good to them."
"She's a classy quilt," Laughing Bill said, on the way back to the
road-house.
"She's as pretty as a picture, and little more than a child," the doctor
admitted.
"You made a hit. She'd do 'most anything for you." The doctor
muttered, absent-mindedly. "She's stood off Petersen and these
red-necks, but she'd fall for you." Mr. Hyde was insinuating.
Thomas halted; he stared at his partner curiously, coldly. "Say! Do you
think that's why I offered to help her?" he inquired.

"Come clean!" The invalid winked meaningly. "You're a long ways
from home, and I've knew fellers to do a lot worse. You can grab her,
easy. And if you do--"
Thomas grunted angrily. "I've put up with a lot from you," he said, then
he strode on.
"And if you do," the other resumed, falling into step with him, "I'll bust
you right where you're thickest."
"Eh?"
"I'll bust you wide open. Oh, me 'n' that gal in the leather frame had a