n
audacious, he drew nearer to her side.

"I suppose you know the forfeit of putting on a gentleman's hat?"

Apparently she did, for she suddenly made a warning gesture, and said,
"Not here! It would be a bigger forfeit than you'd keer fo'." Before he
could reply she turned aside as if quite innocently, and passed into
the shade of a fringe of buckeyes. He followed quickly. "I didn't mean
that," she said; but in the mean time he had kissed the pink tip of her
ear under its brown coils. He was, nevertheless, somewhat discomfited
by her undisturbed manner and serene face. "Ye don't seem to mind bein'
shot at," she said, with an odd smile, "but it won't do for you to
kalkilate that EVERYBODY shoots as keerfully as uncle Harry."

"I don't understand," he replied, struck by her manner.

"Ye ain't very complimentary, or you'd allow that other folks might be
wantin' what you took just now, and might consider you was poachin',"
she returned gravely. "My best and strongest holt among those men is
that uncle Harry would kill the first one who tried anything like that
on--and they know it. That's how I get all the liberty I want here, and
can come and go alone as I like."

Brice's face flushed quickly with genuine shame and remorse. "Do forgive
me," he said hurriedly. "I didn't think--I'm a brute and a fool!"

"Uncle Harry allowed you was either drunk or a born idiot when you was
promenadin' into the valley just now," she said, with a smile.

"And what did you think?" he asked a little uneasily.

"I thought you didn't look like a drinkin' man," she answered
audaciously.

Brice bit his lip and walked on silently, at which she cast a sidelong
glance under her widely spaced heavy lashes and said demurely, "I
thought last night it was mighty good for you to stand up for your
frien' Yuba Bill, and then, after ye knew who I was, to let the folks
see you kinder cottoned to me too. Not in the style o' that land-grabber
Heckshill, nor that peart newspaper man, neither. Of course I gave them
as good as they sent," she went on, with a little laugh, but Brice could
see that her sensitive lip in profile had the tremulous and resentful
curve of one who was accustomed to slight and annoyance. Was it possible
that this reckless, self-contained girl felt her position keenly?

"I am proud to have your good opinion," he said, with a certain respect
mingled with his admiring glance, "even if I have not your uncle's."

"Oh, he likes you we