to her at length, as he had explained to her father, the way the debt could be cancelled. Also, he brought with him old medicine-men, who elaborated to her the everlasting damnation of her father if the debt were not paid. One day, after such an elaboration, El-Soo made final announcement to Porportuk.
"I shall tell you two things," she said. "First, I shall not be your wife. Will you remember that? Second, you shall be paid the last cent of the sixteen thousand dollars—"
"Fifteen thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents," Porportuk corrected.
"My father said sixteen thousand," was her reply. "You shall be paid."
"How?"
"I know not how, but I shall find out how. Now go, and bother me no more. If you do"—she hesitated to find fitting penalty—"if you do, I shall have you rolled in the snow again as soon as the first snow flies."
This was still in the early spring, and a little later El-Soo surprised the country. Word
