, lately--needed
at Clark's--there now. I promised to--to tend to his business here for
him. But he told me about you, just the same, and about your sister,
too. Say, but she is a brick!"

She gave him another look, slightly resentful, but inquiring. "What's a
'brick'?" she demanded.

"It's a person that's all grit," he answered earnestly.

"That's Dallas," she agreed.

He passaged in cavalry fashion until he was between her and the shack.
Then he assumed a front that was cautiously humble. "Lounsbury's had the
best of it," he complained. "He's known you right from the start. And
this is the first chance I've ever had to know you."

She stopped toeing. "But I don't know you," she returned. "Mr.
Lounsbury's never told me----"

"Well, I'll tell you: I'm Robert Fraser, from the Fort. That's really
all there is to say about me. You see, I've only been in one fight--that
was last fall--and I've never even killed an Indian."

She pulled nervously at her bonnet-strings. "You're a soldier," she
said. "And pa--pa'd be mad as a hornet if he knew I'd spoke to you."

Fraser took another step forward. "Pa won't know," he declared.

"Promise you won't tell?" she asked, blushing consciously.

He cast about him as if to find a proper token for his vow. "I promise,"
he answered, hat on heart; "I promise by the Great Horn Spoon!"

"You're the first I--I ever talked to," she faltered.

"That's good!"

"No, it's bad. Because I promised pa once that I wouldn't ever have
anything to do with a soldier. And now I'm breaking my word."

"But he's dead wrong----"

"That's what Dallas says."

"Does she? Bless her heart! Then, why don't you both desert and come
over to the enemy?"

"Pa says you _are_ enemy."

"We were," he corrected soberly. "But the war is over now."

"Maybe it is," she said, wistful, "but pa is still a-fighting."

"And Goldenhair's drafted when she'd rather have peace. Too bad!" He
motioned her to the seat by the gap.

"I can't, I mustn't," she said, and moved a little toward the shack.

"Then I'll go," he said firmly. "I didn't mean to drive you out of
here." He also moved--toward the landing-place.

At that, she assented, fearful of hurting his feelings. But she could
think of nothing to say, and pulled thoughtfully at the grass.

He studied the farther bluff-top and its warding gun.

"Peace," he repeated after a time. "It's a thing we're not likely to
have this summer. And you folks must let us w