ontinued delightful, and the cove seemed to
the child her home, of which the dugout was a sort of cellar.
Concerning the stone retreat in the crevice she knew nothing. Willock
did not know why he kept the secret, since he trusted Lahoma with all
his treasures, but the unreasoning reticence of the man of great
loneliness still rested on him. Some day, he would tell--but not just
yet.

"Lahoma," he said one day, "there's a settler over yonder in the
mountains across the south plain. How'd you like to pay him a visit?"

"I don't want anybody but you," said Lahoma promptly.

Willock stood on one leg, rubbing the other meditatively with his
delighted foot. Not the quiver of a muscle, however, revealed the fact
that her words had flooded his heart with sunshine. "Well, honey,
that's in reason. But I've got to take you with me after books and
winter supplies, and I don't like the idea of traveling alone. It come
to me that I might get Mr. Settler to go, too. Time was not so long
ago when Injun bands was coming and going, and although old Greer is
beginning to be sprinkled up with settlers, here and there, I can't get
over the feel of the old times. They ain't no sensation as sticks by a
man when he's come to be wedged in between forty-five and fifty, as the
feel of the old times."

"Well," said Lahoma earnestly, "I wish you'd leave me here when you go
after them books. I don't want to be with no strangers, I want to just
squat right here and bear myself company."

"That's in reason. But, honey, while you might be safe enough whilst
bearing the same, I would be plumb crazy worrying about you. I might
not have good cause for worrying, but worrying--it ain't no bird that
spreads its wings and goes north when cold weather comes;
worrying--it's independent of causes and seasons."

"If you have got to be stayed with to keep you from worrying, they
ain't nothing more to be said."

"Just so. That there old settler, I have crossed a few words with him,
and I believe he would do noble to travel with. He's as gruff and
growly as a grizzly bear if you say a word to him, and if he'll just
turn all that temper he's vented on me on to any strangers we may run
up against on the trail, he'll do invaluable."

"I'll go catch up the pony," said Lahoma briefly, "for I see the thing
is to be did. This will be the first visit I ever made in my life when
I wasn't drug by the Injuns."

"You mustn't say 'drug,' honey, unless sp