ho was the life of the little party.

The course of our friends was southeast, leading through the present
States of Wyoming, Colorado and into Kansas, where they struck the
trail of the year before. This was followed across Missouri, and,
without mishap, all four reached in due time that old French town on
the Mississippi.

Deerfoot and the boys stayed there for one night and a part of a day.
It was a visit which they always remembered. The only fly in the
ointment was the discovery by Jack Halloway that Dick Burley, after
all, had broken his promise. He had not been in St. Louis twenty-four
hours when he sauntered down to French Pete's place. That worthy met
him with a grin, supposing he had come to make his report, whose nature
was not doubted. Then Dick, after denouncing the fellow as he deserved,
proceeded to business in as emphatic a fashion as Jack had done the
preceding year. He was equally thorough, perhaps more so, for he not
only left the place a wreck, and the proprietor senseless, but "laid
out" two brawlers who happened to be present and were imprudent enough
to try to help the landlord.

"I've one hope," said Jack, in telling of the incident. "Pete will
start up agin and then it'll be _my_ turn to make a friendly call on
him."

In that humble home, on the upper margin of the straggling town of St.
Louis, Jack Halloway introduced George and Victor Shelton and Deerfoot
to his mother. She was a sprightly little lady, who could not have
weighed a hundred pounds, and whose soft, wavy, white hair and pink
cheeks and regular features spoke of the unusual beauty that was hers
when she was the belle of the town. She had a serene beauty and
winsomeness that warmed the hearts of the callers from the moment they
first saw her.

As soon as the introductions and greetings were over, Jack caught his
mother in his arms and tossed her as high as the ceiling would permit,
catching her as she descended and kissing her as if she were a little
child. Then, waving the others to seats, he dropped into the single
rocking chair and held her on his knee during the conversation that
followed. Her soul was wrapped up in this massive boy with the strength
of a giant, and her happiness over his restoration to her after her
years of prayer had a pathos and sweetness that nothing else in all the
world could give.

When the chatter had gone on for a few minutes Jack drew his mother's
face down beside his own and whispered:

"Di