them that way. Still, it isn't every man
could seize a pack on him, and you'll have to let up three dollars on
the price you asked me."

Now three dollars is a considerable proportion of the value of an
Indian pony fresh from the northern grass lands, with the devil that
lurks in most of his race still unsubdued within him, but the rancher
who owned him did not immediately reject the offer. Possibly he was
not especially anxious to keep the beast.

"Oh, yes," said a bystander. "He's game enough, and I'd ask the boys
to my funeral if I meant to drive him at night over the lake trail.
After being most kicked into wood-pulp Carter hasn't any more use for
him, and I'll lay you a dollar, Alton, you and your partner can't put
the pack on him."

Perhaps the Cayuse was tired, or desirous of watching for an
opportunity, for it came to a standstill, snorting, with its wicked
eyes upon the man, who laughed a little and shoved back the broad hat
from his forehead as he straightened himself. The laugh rang
pleasantly, and the faint twinkle in Alton's eyes was in keeping with
it. They were grey, and steady when the light sank out of them, and
the rest of the bronzed face was shrewd and quietly masterful. He wore
a deerskin jacket fancifully embroidered, blue canvas overalls, and gum
boots to the knee, while, though all of them needed repair, the attire
was picturesque, and showed its wearer's lean symmetry. The man's age
was apparently twenty-five, and eight years' use of the axe had set a
stamp of springy suppleness upon him. He had also wrested rather more
than a livelihood from the Canadian forest during them.

All round him the loghouses rose in all their unadorned dinginess
beneath the sombre pines, and the largest of them bore a straggling
legend announcing that it was Horton's store and hotel. A mixed
company of bush ranchers, free prospectors, axemen, and miners lounged
outside it in picturesque disarray, and high above rose a dim white
line of never-melting snow.

"Well," said Alton, "it's time this circus was over, anyway, and if
Carter will take my bid I'll clinch that deal with you. Have the pack
and seizings handy, Charley."

The rancher nodded, and Alton got a tighter grip on the bridle. Then
the Cayuse rose upright with fore-hoofs lifted, and the man's arm was
drawn back to strike. The hoofs came down harmlessly, but the fist got
home, and for a moment or two there was a swaying and plunging of man