are acquainted there?" I ventured.

"Yes, sir. I am acquainted there. And you are from Benton?"

"Oh, no," I assured. "I am from New York State." As if anybody might not
have known. "But I have just purchased my ticket to Benton, and----" I
stammered, "I have made bold to wonder if you would not have the goodness
to tell me something of the place--as to accommodations, and all that. You
don't by any chance happen to live there, do you?"

"And why not, sir, may I ask?" she challenged.

I floundered before her query direct, and her bewildering eyes and
lips--all tantalizing.

"I didn't know--I had no idea--Wyoming Territory has been mentioned in the
newspapers as largely Indian country----"

"At Benton we are only six days behind New York fashions," she smiled.
"You have not been out over the railroad, then, I suspect. Not to North
Platte? Nor to Cheyenne?"

"I have never been west of Cincinnati before."

"You have surely been reading of the railroad? The Pacific Railway between
the East and California?"

"Yes, indeed. In fact, a friend of mine, named Stephen Clark, nephew of
the Honorable Thurlow Weed formerly of Albany, was killed a year ago by
your Indians while surveying west of the Black Hills. And of course there
have been accounts in the New York papers."

"You are not on survey service? Or possibly, yes?"

"No, madam."

"A pleasure trip to end of track?"

She evidently was curious, but I was getting accustomed to questions into
private matters. That was the universal license, out here.

"The pleasure of finding health," I laughed. "I have been advised to seek
a location high and dry."

"Oh!" She dimpled adorably. "I congratulate you on your choice. You will
make no mistake, then, in trying Benton. I can promise you that it is high
and reasonably dry. And as for accommodations--so far as I have ever heard
anybody is accommodated there with whatever he may wish." She darted a
glance at me; stepped aside as if to leave.

"I am to understand that it is a city?" I pleaded.

"Benton? Why, certainly. All the world is flowing to Benton. We gained
three thousand people in two weeks--much to the sorrow of poor old
Cheyenne and Laramie. No doubt there are five thousand people there now,
and all busy. Yes, a young man will find his opportunities in Benton. I
think your choice will please you. Money is plentiful, and so are the
chances to spend it." She bestowed upon me another sparkling glance. "And
since