widows, as fair and beautiful a two girls as ever I see--and
she et 'em, yes, ma'am! And nobody teched her; they warn't no police
in them days. She lives to the Lake at this day!"

"Good Law! Mr. Smiley!" cried Nell with an uneasy glance at the grinning
half-breed on the tail-step.

"Keep cool, old gal!" growled Nick. "Nobody wouldn't pick you out for a
square meal!"

Nell's companion rewarded this sally with an enormous guffaw; and poor,
mortified Nell made believe to laugh too. Natalie's cheeks burned.

"I suppose you hunted buffalo in the old days," said Garth to old Paul.

"Sure, I was quite a hunter," he returned with a casual air. "It
weren't everybody as was considered a hunter, neither. You had to earn
your reppytation. We didn't do no drivin' over cliffs or wholesale
slaughterin'; it was clean huntin' with us, powder and ball. I mind they
used to make a big party, as high as two hundred men, whites, breeds,
and friendly redskins. Everything was conducted regular; camp-guards
and a council and a captain was elected; and all rules strict observed.
Every night we camped inside a barricade. One of the rules was, no tough
old bulls useless for meat should be killed under penalty of twenty-five
dollars. I was had up before the council for that; but I proved it was
self-defense."

"Tell us about it," suggested Garth.

The old man scratched his head, and shot a dubious glance at Natalie. "I
ain't sure as this is quite a proper story," he said. "You see, I was
having a wash, as it might happen, at the edge of a slough--a slough is
a little pond in the prairie, Miss, as you're a stranger--and my clothes
and my gun was lying beside me, and my horse was croppin' the grass at
the top of the rise. When I was as clean as slough water would make me,
which isn't much, 'cause I stirred up a power of mud, and soap was an
extravagance them days, I begun to dress myself. Well, I had my shirt
on, and was sittin' down to pull on my pants, when I heard my cayuse
start off on a dead run. I looked up quick-like and blest if there
wasn't old Bill Buffalo a-pawin' and a-bellerin' and a-shakin' of his
head, not thirty yards away! Soon as he see me look up he come chargin'
down on me with his big head close to the ground like a locomotive
cow-catcher. And me in that awkward state of dishabilly!"

"What did you do, Mr. Smiley?" cried Nell in suspense.

Paul shifted his quid, spat, and shoved his pearl Fedora a little
further over h