ot a dollar to divide with Susie, as
he had promised, and his chagrin over the loss of the money had vanished
as he rode. His temperament was sanguine, and soon he was telling himself
that so long as there were cattle and horses on the range there was always
a stake for him. Following up this cheerful vein of thought, he soon felt
as comfortable as if the money were already in his pocket.

Smith threw up his hand in friendly greeting as the Indian woman came down
the path to meet him.

There was no response, and he scowled.

"The old woman's got her sull on," he muttered, but his voice was pleasant
enough when he asked: "Ain't you glad to see me, Prairie Flower?"

The woman's face did not relax.

"Where you been?" she demanded.

He stopped unsaddling and looked at her.

"I never had no boss, me--Smith," he answered with significance.

"You got a woman!" she burst out fiercely.

Smith's brow cleared.

"Sure I got a woman."

"You lie to me!"

"I call her Prairie Flower--my woman." He reached and took her clenched
hand.

The tense muscles gradually relaxed, and the darkness lifted from her face
like a cloud that has obscured the sun. She smiled and her eyelids dropped
shyly.

"Why you go and no tell me?" she asked plaintively.

"It was a business trip, Prairie Flower, and I like to talk to you of
love, not business," he replied evasively.

She looked puzzled.

"I not know you have business."

"Oh, yes; I do a rushin' business--by spells."

She persisted, unsatisfied:

"But what kind of business?"

Smith laughed outright.

"Well," he answered humorously, "I travels a good deal--in the dark of the
moon."

"Smith!"

She was keener than he had thought, for she drew her right hand slyly
under her left arm in the expressive Indian sign signifying theft. He did
not answer, so she said in a tone of mingled fear and reproach:

"You steal Indian horses!"

"Well?"

She grasped his coat-sleeve.

"Don't do dat no more! De Indians' hearts are stirred. Dey mad. Dis time
maybe dey not ketch you, but some time, yes! You get more brave and you
steal from white man. You steal two, t'ree cow, maybe all right, but when
you steal de white man's horses de rope is on your neck. I know--I have
seen. Some time de thief he swing in de wind, and de magpie pick at him,
and de coyote jump at him. Yes, I have seen it like dat."

Smith shivered.

"Don't talk about them things," he said impatiently. "I've been nea