oldiers."

"Silence in the ranks!" commanded Maynard, and, though he smiled as he
said it, Parker realized his mistake. He turned to Elsie and his wife.
"I tell you, we'd better get out of here. I feel just like a man sitting
on a powder-mine. There's no telling what's going to happen next."

Lawson turned towards him with a sarcastic grin. "I wish I'd realized
the state of your nerves, Parker; I should have invited you to Asbury
Beach instead of the Indian country."

Maynard brought his field-glasses to bear on the desperado. "He has
dismounted," he said. "He is squatted beside his horse, the bridle-rein
on his arm, a rifle across his knees, and is faced this way. His
attitude is resolute and 'sassy.'"

Curtis quietly said: "Now, friends, I wish you would all go in and pay
no further attention to this man. Miss Colson, go back to your work. So
long as he sees us looking at him he will maintain his defiant attitude.
He will grow weary of his bravado if ignored."

"Quite right, Captain," replied Lawson, and the little knot of visitors
broke up and dispersed to sheltered points of observation.

Under the same gentle pressure the employes went back to work, and the
self-convicted warrior was left to defy the wind and the sky. Even the
Tetongs themselves grew tired of looking when nothing seemed likely to
happen, and the forenoon wore away as usual, well filled with duties.
Maynard's men got out for drill an hour later, and their bugle's voice
pulsed upward to the silent and motionless watcher on the hill like
mocking laughter. The clink of the anvil also rose to him on the hot,
dry air, and just beneath him the children came forth at recess to play.
He became tired of sitting on the ground at last, and again mounted his
horse, but no one at the agency seemed to know or to care. The sun beat
remorselessly upon his head, and his throat became parched with thirst.
Slowly but surely the exaltation of the morning ebbed away and a
tremulous weakness seized upon him, so that, when his wife came bringing
meat and water, he who had never expected to eat or drink again seized
upon the food and ate greedily.

Then, while she sat on the ground and repeated the agent's message, he
stood beside his horse, sullen and wordless. The bell rang for noon, and
as the children came rushing out they pointed up at him again, and the
teachers also stood in a group for a moment, with faces turned upward,
but only for a moment, then went care