was
seeing everything strangely.

"Hello, Daggs!" replied Ellen. "Where's my dad?"

"He's playin' cairds with Jackson an' Colter. Shore's playin' bad,
too, an' it's gone to his haid."

"Gamblin'?" queried Ellen.

"Mah child, when'd Kurnel Jorth ever play for fun?" said Daggs, with a
lazy laugh. "There's a stack of gold on the table. Reckon yo' uncle
Jackson will win it. Colter's shore out of luck."

Daggs stepped inside. He was graceful and slow. His long' spurs
clinked. He laid a rather compelling hand on Ellen's shoulder.

"Heah, mah gal, give us a kiss," he said.

"Daggs, I'm not your girl," replied Ellen as she slipped out from under
his hand.

Then Daggs put his arm round her, not with violence or rudeness, but
with an indolent, affectionate assurance, at once bold and
self-contained. Ellen, however, had to exert herself to get free of
him, and when she had placed the table between them she looked him
square in the eyes.

"Daggs, y'u keep your paws off me," she said.

"Aw, now, Ellen, I ain't no bear," he remonstrated. "What's the
matter, kid?"

"I'm not a kid. And there's nothin' the matter. Y'u're to keep your
hands to yourself, that's all."

He tried to reach her across the table, and his movements were lazy and
slow, like his smile. His tone was coaxing.

"Mah dear, shore you set on my knee just the other day, now, didn't
you?"

Ellen felt the blood sting her cheeks.

"I was a child," she returned.

"Wal, listen to this heah grown-up young woman. All in a few days! ...
Doon't be in a temper, Ellen.... Come, give us a kiss."

She deliberately gazed into his eyes. Like the eyes of an eagle, they
were clear and hard, just now warmed by the dalliance of the moment,
but there was no light, no intelligence in them to prove he understood
her. The instant separated Ellen immeasurably from him and from all of
his ilk.

"Daggs, I was a child," she said. "I was lonely--hungry for
affection--I was innocent. Then I was careless, too, and thoughtless
when I should have known better. But I hardly understood y'u men. I
put such thoughts out of my mind. I know now--know what y'u mean--what
y'u have made people believe I am."

"Ahuh! Shore I get your hunch," he returned, with a change of tone.
"But I asked you to marry me?"

"Yes y'u did. The first day y'u got heah to my dad's house. And y'u
asked me to marry y'u after y'u found y'u couldn't have your way with
me. To y'u the on