akin' it."

"It's the same as I seen racin' down the trail just before the Indians
came along," added Rube.

"But who brought it? Who rid it?" Gideon asked. "Who does it belong
to?"

"Dunno," Rube answered, shaking his head in perplexity. "Can't make
him out nohow. Never seen him before. He's just a stranger. A
stranger, an' yet he seems ter know his way 'bout this yer camp most as
well as I do meself. He's in the house right now, jawin' with mother.
Seems he kinder knows her."

"Knows her? Knows your mother? Knows Mee-Mee? I'm amazed! Your
mother ain't bin outer this yer camp, not for years an' years. How c'n
any stranger know her? What's the man's name? Where does he come
from?"

"Dunno, Boss; dunno." Rube shrugged his shoulders. "Guess th' best
way fer you ter straighten out all them things is to step indoors an'
'vestigate."

Gideon straightened the wide rim of his hat, arranged his scarf, and
tightened his belt. The horse's furnishings told him that the stranger
was not a low-down prairie loafer. He strode to the veranda steps,
and, crossing to the open door, looked furtively within the living-room.

Mee-Mee, Rube's Redskin mother, stood with her back to the
cooking-stove, stirring a cup of steaming coffee as she smiled at the
stranger, talking to him in the Pawnee tongue, which Gideon did not
understand. The stranger sat on the edge of the table, facing her,
boyishly swinging a loose leg. He took the proffered cup of coffee and
rested it beside him on the table, almost touching his revolver.

Gideon noticed that the ivory butt of the revolver, projecting from its
holster, was silver-mounted. He also noticed that the man's leather
belt was new and brightly polished, that his red shirt was of very fine
flannel, and his spotted blue scarf of fine soft silk. His short hair
was black, and his complexion as dark as that of an Italian.

The stranger did not look round until Gideon was close up to him. Then
he stood up from the table and turned.

"Well, Gid, old man," he said very quietly, "d'ye know me?"

Gideon drew back, staring into the stranger's handsome, clean-shaven
face, trying to recognize it. His visitor smiled, showing his even
white teeth. Then, dropping his hat on the floor, Gideon leapt forward
with eager, outstretched hands.

"Kiddie!" he cried. "Kiddie!--you--back here! Here to th' old shack?"

Kiddie took the old man's head tenderly between his hands, drew it to