You walked twenty days
to see a yellow stone that would buy nothing." It was fortunate
that he took this view of the case, which was flattering to his
Indian nature, and perhaps touched his sense of the ludicrous.
At all events, he said nothing to discredit my story, to which
they had all listened with profound interest.
From that time it seemed to be tacitly agreed to let bygones be
bygones; and I could see that as the dangerous feeling that had
threatened my life diminished, the old pleasure they had once
found in my company returned. But my feelings towards them did
not change, nor could they while that black and terrible
suspicion concerning Rima was in my heart. I talked again freely
with them, as if there had been no break in the old friendly
relations. If they watched me furtively whenever I went out of
doors, I affected not to see it. I set to work to repair my rude
guitar, which had been broken in my absence, and studied to show
them a cheerful countenance. But when alone, or in my hammock,
hidden from their eyes, free to look into my own heart, then I
was conscious that something new and strange had come into my
life; that a new nature, black and implacable, had taken the
place of the old.
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