," answered Stephen, with a
bow. His friend bowed too, and then they all three laughed and felt
instinctively they were friends. There is nothing truer than the saying,
"Good looks are perpetual letters of introduction." These three carried
their letters of introduction on their faces, and they were all mutually
satisfied.

"I know your father quite well," remarked Talbot to her. "This 'Pistol
Shot' has been an institution longer than I have been here, but I never
knew he had a daughter."

"No," said Katrine, tranquilly, "I daresay not. Father and I quarrelled
a little while ago, and since then I have been living by myself in one
of those little cabins in Good Luck Row. Do you know it?"

"No," answered Talbot. "I come into town very seldom, only when I want
fresh supplies. I stay up at the claim nearly all the time. Do you live
all by yourself then?" he added, wondering to himself as he looked at
her, for her beauty was quite striking, and she was certainly not over
twenty, yet there was something in the strong, noble outlines of her
figure, in the tranquil calm of her manner, the self-reliance of her
whole bearing, and the business-like way those pistols were thrust in
her belt, that modified the wonder a little.

"Quite," she said, with a laugh. "Oh, I've always been accustomed to
take care of myself."

"But don't you feel very dull and lonely?"

"Sometimes," answered the girl; "but then I would much rather live alone
than with some one I can't agree with."

Both the men knew the drunken habits of old Poniatovsky, so that they
silently sympathised with her, and there was a pause as they watched
other miners coming in.

"Well," said Katrine after a few seconds, straightening herself from her
leaning attitude, "I think I will go home now; this place is getting so
full, we shan't be able to breathe soon."

The men looked at each other, and then spoke simultaneously: "May we see
you as far as your cabin?"

Katrine smiled, such a pretty arch smile, that dimpled the velvet cheeks
and illumined the whole face.

"Why yes, do, I shall be delighted."

They all three went out together: the cold outside seemed so deadly that
Talbot drew his collar up over his mouth and nose, unable to face it;
the girl, however, did not seem to notice it, but laughed and chatted
gaily in the teeth of the wind, as they made their way down the street.
It was still snowing--a peculiar fine powdery snow, light and almost
imperceptible