then bounded forward;
not, however, before Jacques's quick eye had observed the danger, and
his ever-ready hand arrested its course.

"Have a care, Miss Kate," he said, in a warning voice, while he gazed in
the face of the excited girl with a look of undisguised admiration. "It
don't do to wallop a skittish beast like that."

"Never fear, Jacques," she replied, bending forward to pat her charger's
arching neck; "see, he is becoming quite gentle again."

"If he runs away, Kate, we won't be able to catch you again, for he's
the best of the four, I think," said Harry, with an uneasy glance at the
animal's flashing eye and expanded nostrils.

"Ay, it's as well to keep the whip off him," said Jacques. "I know'd a
young chap once in St. Louis who lost his sweetheart by usin' his whip
too freely."

"Indeed," cried Kate, with a merry laugh, as they emerged from one of
the numerous thickets and rode out upon the open plain at a foot pace;
"how was that, Jacques? Pray tell us the story."

"As to that, there's little story about it," replied the hunter. "You
see, Tim Roughead took arter his name, an' was always doin' some
mischief or other, which more than once nigh cost him his life; for the
young trappers that frequent St. Louis are not fellows to stand too much
jokin', I can tell ye. Well, Tim fell in love with a gal there who had
jilted about a dozen lads afore; an' bein' an oncommon handsome,
strappin' fellow, she encouraged him a good deal. But Tim had a
suspicion that Louise was rayther sweet on a young storekeeper's clerk
there; so, bein' an offhand sort o' critter, he went right up to the
gal, and says to her, says he, `Come, Louise, it's o' no use humbuggin'
with _me_ any longer. If you like me, you like me; and if you don't
like me, you don't. There's only two ways about it. Now, jist say the
word at once, an' let's have an end on't. If you agree, I'll squat with
you in whativer bit o' the States you like to name; if not, I'll bid you
good-bye this blessed mornin', an' make tracks right away for the Rocky
Mountains afore sundown. Ay or no, lass; which is't to be?'

"Poor Louise was taken all aback by this, but she knew well that Tim was
a man who never threatened in jest, an' moreover she wasn't quite sure
o' the young clerk; so she agreed, an' Tim went off to settle with her
father about the weddin'. Well, the day came, an' Tim, with a lot o'
his comrades, mounted their horses, and rode off to the br