woke she would die with terror--now that he
was asleep and did not know that she was looking after
his comfort, she experienced a strange, undefinable
pleasure in so doing. It was quite a new feeling--something
that filled her with a vague wonder.

And then he suddenly opened his eyes, and looked at her
for a few moments without stirring.

"Thank you," he said simply, and closed his eyes again.

She could have cried with vexation. If he had been profuse
in his thanks she would have had an opportunity of cutting
him short with some commonplace comment.

"Hadn't you better lie on the couch, Mr. Pasmore?" she
said. "You don't look as if you fitted that chair, and
it makes you snore so."

She had hardly thought herself capable of such perfidy,
but she did not want him to think that she could be
altogether blind to his faults. He sat bolt upright in
an instant, and stammered out an apology.

But she cut it short. She resented the idea that he should
imagine she took sufficient interest in him to be put
out by a trifle.

At that very moment there rang out a rifle shot from the
ridge just above the wood hard by. It was followed by
another at a greater distance.

"There!" said the girl, with a finger pressed against
her lower lip, and a look as if of relief on her face.
"Now you will have some work to do. They have come sooner
than you expected."

He scanned her face for a moment as if to note how this
quick call to grim tragedy affected her. A man of courage
himself, he instantly read there possibilities of a very
high order and exceptional nerve. There was nothing
neurotic about her. Whatever the wayward imaginings of
her heart might be, she was a fresh, wholesome and healthy
daughter of the prairie, one whose nerves were in accord
with her mind and body, one for whom there were no physical
or imaginary bogeys.

"It won't frighten you, will it, if we have to turn this
kitchen into a sort of shooting gallery?" he asked.

She smiled at the very familiarity with which he handled
his subject.

"It will be unpleasant," she replied simply, "but you
know I'm accustomed to rifles."

"You don't seem to realise what a rising means amongst
savages," he continued. "You must never lose your head,
whatever happens, and you must never trust any one outside
your own family circle. You must never let yourself fall
into their hands; you understand me?"

"I understand," she said, facing him unflinchingly, "and
I have m