ook before, and I hate him. He
thinks because he has a little authority he can lord it over us all
here. I shall write to father at once, telling him just how this little
prig of a lieutenant--"

"Captain," interrupted Lawson--"for distinguished service."

His smile made her furious. She flung herself back on the divan. "Go
away. I hate you, too."

Lawson, at the end of his patience, went out and closed the door behind
him. "What is the matter with the girl?" he said to Mrs. Wilcox. "I've
seen her in temper, but never like this. She has taken the most violent
antagonism to Curtis."

"She'd better let that young man alone," replied Mrs. Wilcox, sagely.
"He has a very firm mouth."

V

CAGED EAGLES

The word had gone out among all the red people that the old agent was
entirely "cut off," and that a soldier and a sign-talker had come to
take his place, and so each little camp loaded its tepees on wagons or
lashed them to the ponies and came flocking in to sit down before the
Little Father and be inspired of him.

The young men came first, whirling in on swift ponies, looking at a
distance like bands of cowboys--for, though they hated the cattlemen,
they formed themselves on Calvin Streeter as a model. Each wore a wide,
white hat and dark trousers, and carried a gay kerchief slung round his
neck. All still wore moccasins of buckskin, beautifully beaded and
fringed, and their braided hair hung low on their breasts.

The old men, who jogged in later in the day, still carried blankets,
though they, too, had adopted the trousers and calico shirts of the
white man. Several of the chieftains preserved their precious
peace-pipes, and their fans and tobacco pouches, as of old, and a few of
those who had been in Washington came in wrinkled suits of army-blue.
The women dressed in calico robes cut in their own distinctive style,
with wide sleeves, the loose flow of the garment being confined at the
waist with a girdle. As this was a time of great formality, several of
the young girls returned to their buckskin dresses trimmed with elk
teeth, which they highly prized.

As a race they were tall and strong, but the men, from much riding, were
thin in the shanks and bowed out at the knee. They had lost the fine
proportions for which they were famed in the days when they were
trailers a-foot. "Straight as an Indian" no longer applied to them, but
they were all skilled and picturesque horsemen. Lacking in beauty and
st