lessly away to their meals.

An hour passed, the work-bell rang, the clerks returned to their duties,
and the agent walked slowly across the road towards the office. Cut
Finger lifted his rifle and pointed it. "I could shoot him now," he
muttered. "But he is a good man; I do not want to kill him." Then the
heat and silence settled over hill and valley, and no sound but the
buzzing of flies and the clatter of grasshoppers broke the hot, brooding
hush of the mid-day. The wind was from the plain and brought no coolness
on its wings.

But he was not entirely forgotten. Elsie, from her studio door, kept
close watch upon him. "There's something fine about him after all," she
said to Curtis.

"It's like the old Mosaic times--an eye for an eye. He knows he must die
for this, but he prefers to die gloriously, as a warrior dies."

A dust down the road caught Curtis's attention. "The mail will soon be
in and then we will see how all this affects the press of the State; the
Chicago dailies will not reach us for a couple of days yet."

"Send the papers over here, please!" cried Elsie, "I'm wild to see
them."

"Why not all assemble at 'the parsonage' and I'll bring them there?"

"Very well; that will do as well," she replied. "It will be such a joy
to read our obituaries."

As he entered the library with his armful of papers a half-hour later
Curtis exclaimed: "Well, now, here is a feast! The commotion on the
outside is prodigious. Here are the Copper City and Alta papers, and a
dozen lesser 'lights and signals of progress' in the State. Help
yourselves." He took out a handful of letters and telegrams. "And here
are the prayers of anxious relatives. A telegram for you, Miss Brisbane;
and two for you, Lawson."

Elsie's message from her father was brief. "Have no word from you; am en
route for Pinon City. Not finding you there will cross to agency at
once. Why do you not come out?"

Looking at the date she said: "Papa is coming; he is probably on his
way to the agency at this moment."

Curtis looked a little troubled. "I hope not; the roads are dusty and
the sun is hot."

"By George! this is fierce stuff," said Parker, looking up from his
paper.

"Cut Finger has left the hill," announced Jennie from the door-way; "he
is nowhere to be seen."

"Now he will submit to arrest," exclaimed Curtis. "His fine frenzy is
gone."

"I'm sorry," Elsie soberly exclaimed. "Must you give him up to that
stupid sheriff?"

"Yes, it m