I don't know that
it's any more than fair that you should bury him."

Sir Bryan's spirits rose still higher at the hope of partial expiation
of his crime; but with his rising spirits came a premonition of a good
healthy appetite which would soon be due, and he asked meekly: "Would
you mind, then, if I were to go back to town first, to get something to
eat? A person doesn't dig so well, I suppose, on an empty stomach."

"No, you'd better stay and get your dinner with me. It will take you
pretty much all day to bury Brian. You probably never buried a bear
before," she added, as patronizingly as if she herself had been a
professional grave-digger, "and you don't know what a piece of work it's
going to be."

They started to push their way through the scrub-oaks.

"Shall I lead your horse for you?" Sir Bryan asked.

[Illustration: "THE VAST SEA OF THE PRAIRIE."]

"No, thank you. Comrag will follow, all right;" and Comrag did follow,
so close upon their heels, that Sir Bryan was in momentary expectation
of being trampled upon.

Comrag was an unbeautiful beast, and he permitted himself startling
liberties; crowding himself in between his mistress and her companion,
helping himself without ceremony to a bunch of asters which Sir Bryan
had in his hand, and neighing straight into the young baronet's ear as
they came in sight of the house.

The "house" was a mere hut, painted red, entirely dwarfed by an ungainly
chimney of rough stone. The little hut was built against a huge boulder,
which towered above the chimney itself, and looked as though it had
stood there since the foundation of the earth. There was a rustic
veranda along the front of this diminutive dwelling, which stood on a
slight eminence; and, as Sir Bryan stepped upon the veranda, he drew a
long breath of amazement and delight. Looking down over the broad,
oak-clad slope of the mountain, he beheld the vast sea of the prairie,
stretching for leagues upon leagues away to the low horizon. From that
height the view seemed limitless, and the illusion of the sea, which
always hovers over the prairies, was complete.

As his hostess came out with a long-handled spade in her hand, he cried,
"That is the most magnificent thing I ever saw!"

She did not answer immediately, but stood leaning upon the spade, and
gazing forth as intently as if it had been to her too a revelation.

Then she drew a long breath and said, in a rapt tone, as though the
words came to her one