was seated in the centre of the group of ranchmen ranged
in a wide semicircle about the hearth of flagstones; the ethereal tints
of her shimmering attire showed all their highlights; her face and
golden brown hair seemed particularly soft and delicate in contrast with
the rough tousled heads and bearded countenances about her; here and
there the muzzle of a great animal, the flash of fangs and red glow of
formidable jaws, were half discriminated amidst the alternate flare of
the flames and flicker of the shadows,--all might have suggested the
"mystick Crew of Comus" to Richard Mivane, being the only person present
who had ever heard of that motley company, had not his thoughts been
otherwise engrossed. He meditatively cleared his throat, took a sip of
brandy and water, for he had long ago lost his genteel affiliations with
tea, and hopefully opened the subject of his mission.

A change fell upon the scene, instant, definite, complete. In the mere
broaching of business it might seem that beauty and charm are but
tenuous at best, and powerless to subdue the fiercer nature of man when
his acquisitive and aggressive commercial instincts are aroused. One of
the most devout admirers of Peninnah Penelope Anne tossed his head with
a very bellicose and bovine obduracy when he intimated an incredulity of
the statement that the herd had been stampeded without an ulterior
motive of malice or nefarious profit. The gentle soul who had assumed
the tendance and protection of the fawn held down as he listened a
shaggy intent head, like that of a bull about to charge, at the mere
mention of the shooting of the wolf. In fact, the suggestion of shadowy
monsters which the dusky flicker and evanescent flare of the fire
fostered and which was intensified by the proximity of open jaws, sharp
fangs, heavy muzzles, and standing bristles amongst them, owed much of
its effect to the unanimous expression of truculent challenge and averse
disfavor. There were frequent confirmatory emphatic nods of great
disheveled heads, the scarlet flushing of angry faces, already florid,
and now and again a violent descriptive gesture of a long brawny arm
with a clenched fist at its extremity. Richard Mivane's well-rounded
periods and gentlemanly phrasings were like the educated thrusts and
feints of an expert fencer who opposes his single rapier to the
bludgeons and missiles of a furious mob. He saw in less than five
minutes that the scheme of extenuation and conc