's words and in Jack's eyes. "I came back
to America on a short business trip. My father heard of some mines in
Colorado, and as I was so enthusiastic about the West he sent me out to
investigate them for him. As Colorado is a sister state to Wyoming, I
had to slip across the border, you know," he ended shyly.

Olive had let every one else in the room finish their welcome to Frank
Kent before she attempted to speak to him. Now she put out her slender
hand and held his only for a moment while her face flushed and her dark
eyes shone with a soft radiance. "I am truly glad to see you again," she
declared with more real feeling than any one of the other girls had yet
revealed. Jack, who adored Olive, and was a little jealous of any
affection she might show for other people, stared at her curiously.

"O Frank, do let's all go out of doors," Jack suggested. "We have the
most wonderful scheme we want to tell you about and we want to know
everything about your people in England, your father and mother and two
sisters and your wonderful estate in Surrey."

The entire party was just leaving the living room when Aunt Ellen's tall
form blocked the door. Her face showed anger and she held the small
Indian boy by his uninjured arm. Carlos' eyes were larger and more
mournful than ever and his lips set in an obstinate curve.

"This boy says he won't eat with Zack and me," Aunt Ellen announced
angrily. "He says he is the son of a chief and the grandson of one and
that he should be fed first; and I won't put up with such nonsense."

"O Carlos!" Olive came across the room and dropped on the floor in front
of the lad. "How can you be so silly and ungrateful?" she asked
pleadingly. "Aunt Ellen, his people are all dead; they were killed in a
fight on the plains, and I don't know whether Carlos is a chief's son or
not. But of course we can't keep him at the ranch if he is
troublesome."

Olive was such a lovely picture as she knelt on the floor gazing up into
the Indian boy's face that Frank Kent looked at her closely for the
first time since he entered Rainbow Lodge. She was more changed than any
one of the ranch girls in the six months of his absence, and seemed
older and somehow more graceful and elusive than ever.

Jim Colter took several great strides across the room toward small
Carlos, without apparently heeding Ruth's little cry of remonstrance nor
Olive's plea for patience; he seemed so big and fierce and strong and
the Indian