r.

"Oh, they didn't war much till the white man came to disturb them, by
crowding one tribe into another tribe's territory. Their 'wars' were
small affairs--hardly more than skirmishes. That they were infrequent is
evident from the importance given small forays in their 'winter
counts.'"

One by one the campers began to yawn, and Jennie and Mrs. Parker
withdrew into the tent reserved for the women, but Lawson and Elsie and
Curtis still remained about the fire. The girl's eyes were wide with
excitement. "Isn't it delicious to be a little speck of life in this
limitless world of darkness? Osborne, why didn't we camp last year?"

"I proposed it, but Mattie would not hear to it. I have a notion that
you also put my suggestion aside with scorn."

She protested that he was mistaken. "It is the only way to get close to
these wild people. I begin to understand them as I sit here beside this
fire. What do you suppose Two Horns is thinking about as he sits over
there smoking?"

As they talked, Lawson began to yawn also, and at last said: "Elsie Bee
Bee, I am sleepy, and I know Curtis is."

"Not at all," protested Curtis. "I'm just coming to myself. As the
camp-fire smoulders the night is at its best. Besides, I'm in the midst
of a story."

"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," began Lawson,
apologetically. "I think--if you don't mind--"

"Go to bed, Sleepy Head," laughed Elsie. "We'll excuse you."

"I believe I will," and off he went, leaving the two young people alone.

"Go on!" cried Elsie. "Tell me all about it."

Curtis glowed with new fire at this proof of her interest. "Well, there
we were, Sergeant Pierce, Standing Elk, and myself, camped in Avalanche
Basin, which at that time of the year is as full of storms as a cave is
of bats." A yelping cry on the hill back of them interrupted him. "There
goes a coyote! Now the night is perfect," he ended, with a note of
exultant poetry.

She drew a little nearer to him. "I don't enjoy that cry as well as you
do," she said, with a touch of delicious timidity in her voice. "That's
the woman of it, isn't it?"

"I know how harmless he is." After a pause, he slowly said: "This is the
farthest reach of the imaginable--that you should sit here beside my
fire in this wild land. It must seem as much of a dream to you as your
splendid home was to me."

"I didn't suppose these things could shake me so. How mysterious the
world is when night makes it lone and empty! I n