, and now they dressed and cooked a portion
of it, and were gorging themselves comfortably before the fire, with
many grunts of satisfaction at the finding of the formidable owner of
the premises absent. They were on their way to Laramie to trade and
sell game, and it was their intention to leave a portion of their
mutton with Larry Kildene; for never did they dare venture near him
without bringing a propitiatory offering.

The sun had set and the cold mists were blowing across from the fall
and closing around the cabin like a veil of amethystine dye, when
Amalia saw them moving about the cabin door as if preparing to depart.
Her heart rose, and she signaled her mother, but no. They went indoors
again, and she saw them no more. In truth they had disputed long as to
whether it was best to leave before the big man's return, or to remain
in their comfortable quarters and start early, before day. It was the
conference that drew them out, and they had made ready to start at a
moment's notice if he should return in the night. But as the darkness
crept on and Larry Kildene did not appear they stretched themselves
before the fire and slept, and the two women on the mountain, hungry
and cold, crept under the mother's cloak and lay long into the night,
shivering and listening, couched on the pine twigs Amalia had spread
under the ledge of rock. At last, clasped in each other's arms, they
slept, in spite of fear and cold, for very weariness.

Amalia woke next morning to the low murmuring of a voice. It was her
mother, kneeling in the pine needles, praying at her side. She waited
until the prayer was ended, then she rose and went out from the
sheltered hollow where they lay. "I will look a little, mamma. Wait
for me."

She gazed down on the cabin, but all was still. The amethystine veil
had not lifted, and no smoke came from the chimney. She crept back to
her mother's side, and they sat close for warmth, and waited. When the
sun rose and the clouds melted away, all the earth smiled up at them,
and their fears seemed to melt away with the clouds. Still they did
not venture out where they thought they might be spied from below, and
time passed while they watched earnestly for the sight of moving
figures, and still no smoke appeared from the cabin.

Higher and higher the sun climbed in the sky, yet they could not bring
themselves to return. Hunger pressed them, and Amalia begged her
mother to let her go a little nearer to listen,