like you. I admire your frankness. Let me be equally plain.
You're too able a man to be shelved out there on a bleak reservation.
What was your idea of going into the Indian service, anyway?"

The young officer remained on guard despite this genial glow. "I
considered it my duty," he replied. "Besides, I was rusting out in
garrison, and--but there is no need to go into my motives. I am agent,
and shall stand firmly for the right of my wards so long as I am in
position to do so."

"But you're wasting your life. Suppose you were offered a chance to go
to--well, say West Point, as an instructor on a good salary?"

"I would decline the appointment."

"Why?"

"Because at this time I am needed where I am, and I have started on a
plan of action which I have a pride in finishing."

Brisbane grew distinctively less urbane. "You are bent on fighting me,
are you?"

"What do you mean?" asked Curtis, though he knew.

"You are dead set against the removal of the Tetongs?"

"Most certainly I am!"

Elsie re-entered the room during this rapid interchange of phrase, but
neither of the men heard her, so intent were they upon each other.

"Young man, do you know who you are fighting?" asked Brisbane, bristling
like a bear and showing his teeth a little. Curtis being silent, he
went on: "You're lined up against the whole State! Not only the
cattlemen round about the reservation, but a majority of the citizens
are determined to be rid of those vagabonds. Anybody that knows anything
about 'em knows they're a public nuisance. Why should they be allowed to
camp on land which they can't use--graze their mangy ponies on lands
rich in minerals--"

"Because they are human beings."

"Human beings!" sneered Brisbane. "They are nothing but a greasy lot of
vermin--worthless from every point of view. Their rights can't stand in
the way of civilization."

"It is not a question of whether they are clean or dirty, it is a
question of justice," Curtis replied, hotly. "They came into the world
like the rest of us, without any choice in the matter, and so far as I
can see have the same rights to the earth--at least, so much of it as
they need to sustain life. The fact that they make a different use of
the soil than you would do isn't a sufficient reason for starving and
robbing them."

"The quicker they die the better," replied Brisbane, flushing with
sudden anger. "The only good Injun is a dead Injun."

At this familiar phrase Curtis to