e song that the eldest brother
was singing to the herd.

At three o'clock the following afternoon, though they had gone at a
grazing pace since sun-up, they arrived in sight of the post and halted
a mile away from the nearest dugout. The little girl and the dogs
remained with the cattle while the eldest brother cantered in to report
his arrival. When he returned, a young lieutenant came with him to
inspect the drove; and by six o'clock the beeves had been declared
satisfactory and were in a stockade pen behind the barracks. Then the
eldest brother, his belt heavy with good government coin, rode with the
little girl toward the hotel, a rough, one-story building flanked on
either side by a gambling-house.

They ate their supper in the small, unpapered parlor which adjoined the
bar, for the eldest brother had looked into the dining-room and found it
as thick with smoke and men as the saloon. When the meal, which was
served by an Indian woman, was over, the little girl remained quietly in
her chair while the eldest brother went out to sell the pack-pony. He
returned late, delighted over making a fine bargain with a Canadian
fur-trader, to find her waiting patiently but tremblingly for him.

"Oh, they've been making such a terrible noise in the saloon," she told
him, as she sprang up to let him in. "I locked the door because I was
scared. I could hear swearing and quarreling, and poker chips rattling
around."

He did not answer until he had carefully hidden the price of the pony in
his belt. Then he put his revolvers on the table and drew a chair close
to hers.

"I just met Eagle Eye," he whispered, "an' he says that what the Swede
told ma is true. This hotel's a tough place, and the man that runs it
's got a bad name. It's full of gamblers now, too, because the troopers
have just been paid. I don't like to think of bunkin' here to-night one
bit. Pretty nearly every man knows I've got a lot of money on me. But
what c'n we do?"

The little girl knit her brows. "We might stay right in this room," she
whispered at last. "You could bring in the blankets and I'd watch while
you slept a little while; and then you could watch till morning."

"Oh, I guess it ain't so bad as all that."

"Or we could ride toward home and camp. I'm not tired, and I'd rather
ride than stay here, especially alone in a room."

"Well, now, I don't intend to let you stay alone in a room," declared
the eldest brother. "But there's no use of our tr