Overton did not answer at once. His eyes were turned toward his bandaged
arm, and a little wrinkle grew between his brows.

"The man is dead, and I don't think there's anything for me to say as to
his gentlemanly qualities," he said at last. "He was a prospector and
speculator, with an equal amount of vice and virtue in him, I suppose;
just about like the rest of us. Her mother I never saw, but have reason to
think she was a lady."

"And you say every word of that as if they were drawn from you with
forceps," said Lyster, cheerily. "Well, I'll not bother you about it
again. But, you see, there is a cousin of mine at the school I spoke of,
and I wanted to know because of that. It's all right, though; my own
instincts would tell me she came of good stock. But even good stock will
grow wild, you know, if it doesn't get the right sort of training. You
know, old fellow, I'm downright in earnest about wanting to help you about
her."

"Yes, I know. You have, too," said the other. "You've pointed out the
school and all, and we see she can't be left here."

"Not when you are ranging around the hills, and never a man to take your
place as a guard," agreed Lyster. "I feel about two years old ever since I
heard of how you kept annoyances from us last night while we were so
serenely unconscious of your trials. 'Tana will scarcely look at me this
morning, for no reason but that I did not divine the state of affairs and
go to help you. That girl has picked up so much queer knowledge herself
that she expects every one to be gifted with second sight."

Then he told, with a good deal of amusement, the episode of the poker game
and the discomfiture of the captain.

Overton said little. He was not so much shocked or vexed over it as Lyster
had been, because he had lived more among people to whom such pastimes
were not unusual.

"And I offered to teach her 'seven-up,' because it was easy," he remarked
grimly. "Yes, the school is best. You see, even if I am on the ground, I'm
not a fit guardian. Didn't I give her leave to get square with the old
man? While, if I'd been the right sort of a guardian, she would have been
given a moral lecture on the sinfulness of revenge. I guess we'd better
begin to talk school right away."

"I imagine she'll object at first, through force of habit, and protest
that she knows enough for one girl."

But she did not. She listened with wonder in her eyes, and something of
shamed contrition in her fac