“We need you, too,” Running Bear said, this time grabbing her by an arm and forcing her to her feet.
“Now go peacefully with me. You will see that we mean you no harm. We are your friends.”
“Friends do not treat friends as you are treating me,” Dorey said, now having no choice but to go over into the other canoe.
Once inside it, she sat down, her arms crossed defiantly across her chest. “Now what?” she demanded, hoping the fear building inside her wasn’t revealed in her tone of voice. “Where are you taking me?”
Running Bear sat down in front of her, and his brother sat behind her.
They both lifted their paddles and turned the canoe around, directing it toward the spot where they had built their tree house.
Both boys’ excitement was revealed in their eyes as they paddled the canoe briskly through the water. “What are you going to do with me…or should I say…to me?” Dorey asked, looking over her shoulder at one of them, and then straight ahead at the other.
“You are not going to be harmed,” Deer Shadow said, looking at her as he momentarily stopped paddling. “You might even enjoy it. We plan to.”
A shiver raced up and down Dorey’s spine at a thought that made her insides turn cold. She was all alone with two boys who might be seeking excitement in a way that made her feel ill.
And who was to say that they might not even kill her once their experiments were completed?
She hung her head, yet fought off the urge tocry. She had disobeyed
her mother by going much farther downriver than she ought, and now she was paying for it.
“We are going to keep you for only one night, and we will not harm you in any way,” Running Bear said. “We have never been with a white person before; we just want to get to know you and learn of your ways. Then we will release you.”
“You are going to hold me against my will for a full night?” Dorey gasped, turning pale at the thought of how that night might change her life.
“You are making a big mistake,” she blurted out, slowly looking up into the eyes of Running Bear, who was studying her intently. “Let me go and I won’t tell anyone what you have done. I promise. Please believe me. I need to go home to my mother.”
“We will release you when we are ready to,” Deer Shadow said, his voice suddenly tight. “Soon you will see that we have prepared well for your visit with us.”
All was quiet for a while, and then Dorey saw a tree house built high above the river. “Are…you…taking me there?” she asked softly. “To…a tree house?”
“It was built just for you,” Running Bear said, smiling at her. “You will see that you will not want for a thing.”
“Except my freedom and my mother,” Dorey said sarcastically, yet she could not help admiring the lovely tree house. She knew that these two youngbraves had spent much time and care building it with her in mind.
Something told her that she might not have anything to fear except the worry she would cause her mother.
“We just want to talk with you and spend time with you,” Running Bear said. “You are a curiosity to us, and I am sure we are the same to you. You can ask and we will tell you about us and our people, and then you will tell us about your own.”
“You could have asked politely, and then I would have come with you without being forced,” Dorey said, thinking that she might really have done this, for she loved excitement in her life.
Even now, the longer she was with the young braves, the more she felt they were not the sort to hurt her!
“Just come with us and all will be well,” Deer Shadow said as he and his brother beached the canoe just beneath the tree house and secured it to a rock.
Dorey did as they said and soon found herself high above the water in a very neatly constructed tree house. It had been outfitted with food, blankets, and mosquito netting. There was even a torch secured on one of the walls!
“You see that we have done all we could so that you would be comfortable,” Running Bear said. “We had wanted to spend time with you today but it took us too long to find you. We are expected home. We must leave you here now without us.”
Dorey went pale and felt sick to her stomachagain. These two boys had brought her here and now planned to leave her all alone in the swamp.
Her canoe had been abandoned; if they left in theirs, she would be at the mercy of the night creatures. If she tried to escape, she would have to travel alongside the river on foot.
“You can’t leave me here by myself,” she blurted out. “Please reconsider. Take me back to my canoe. Let me go home.”
“We will return tomorrow morning, early,” Deer Shadow said as Running Bear picked up two thongs and knelt in front of Dorey. “We must tie your wrists, and then your ankles. We do not want you running away.”