d snow, through the balsamic pines and cedars, with a revivifying
power that was grateful to all who felt its life-giving embrace.

The sun hovered in a sky of unclouded azure. It shot its arrows into
the gullies, ravines and gorges, but made no impression on the frozen
covering far up in cloudland itself. Long pointed ravelings on the
lower edge of the mantle showed where some of the snow had turned to
water, which changed again to ice, when the sun dipped below the
horizon.

The miners were pigmies as they toiled in the sides of the towering
mountain walls, where they had toiled for many a day. On the lip of a
projecting crag, half a mile above were three other pigmies, who
neither toiled nor spun. Viewed through a glass, it was seen that they
wore stained feathers in their black hair dangling about their
shoulders, with the blankets wrapped round their forms descending to
their moccasined feet. They were watching in grim silence these proofs
of the invasion of their homes by the children of another race, and
mayhap were conjuring some scheme for driving them back into the great
sea across which they had sailed to occupy the new land.

One of the Indians was a chieftain. He had come in violent contact
with these hated creatures and he bore on his person the scars of such
meeting. All carried bows and arrows, though others of their tribe had
learned the use of the deadly firearms, which has played such havoc
with the American race.

Suddenly the chief uttered an exclamation. Then drawing an arrow from
the quiver over his shoulder, he fitted it to the string of his long
bow, and pointing downward toward the group of miners, launched the
shaft. Except for the power of gravity, it would have been a foolhardy
effort, but guided by the wisp of feather twisted around the reed, the
missile spun far outward over the canyon, and dived through the vast
reach of space, as if it were endowed with life and determined to seek
out and pierce the intruders. The black eyes of the three warriors
followed the arrow until it was only a flickering speck, far below
them; but, before that moment arrived, they saw that it was speeding
wide of the mark. When at last, the sharp point struck the flinty
rock, and the missile doubled over upon itself and dropped harmlessly
to the bottom of the canyon, it was at such a distance from the miners,
that they knew nothing of it. They never looked up, nor were they
aware of the futile anger of the re