ized this. Both he and Silent Pete had to regret the
fact that, at present and in their employer's absence, they could not
venture on the trading; but at the old hunter's suggestion they had
assumed the responsibility of giving White Feather the finest horse in
stock. This was a magnificent black stallion which had never been broken
to harness and with a temper that threatened ill to any man who
undertook the task.

The youngsters came up and filed before White Feather, standing now, and
gravely accepting their timidly proffered hands, as the name of each was
mentioned. His own response was a friendly grunt but he was evidently
bored by the affair and passed the girls over with the slightest notice.
His eye lingered a bit longer upon the lads and it seemed that he was
measuring their heights with his eye. But he let them go, almost as soon
as he had the girls, and as Molly exclaimed when they had retreated to
Captain Lem's room:

"I never felt I was such a litty-bitty-no-account creature in all my
life! I wouldn't be an Indian squaw for anything! But wasn't he just
grand--and hideous?"

Then Captain signalled to them that they would better return to the
house. The Chief evidently considered the presence of females an
intrusion and that of such slender, white-faced lads but little better.
Upon Leslie, as son of the ranch owner, he bestowed several grave stares
but no more speech than on the others.

So from the unlighted music-room they watched for a time in silence;
till everything grew quiet at the Barracks, all lights out, and the
strange guests asleep on their blankets upon the porch. Then they, too,
went to bed, greatly stirred by the fact of such uncommon acquaintances
so close at hand, and with entirely new ideas of Colorado red men.

By daylight the visitors had gone, so silently that nobody in the house
itself had heard their departure. With them, too, had gone Rob Roy, the
black stallion; and, what seemed valueless to the givers some old
garments of the ranchmen. From one a coat, another a sombrero, a
blanket, shoes, underwear, and from Silent Pete himself a complete
hunter's outfit.

All his comrades were surprised at this, for he kept the buckskin suit
as a souvenir of earlier days, when he was as free to roam the forests
as any Indian of them all and the blood still ran hot and wild in his
veins. He was an old man now. He pondered much on the past and he spoke
little to any man. But he talked with the