and stamping.

"Better shoot them," I suggested, pulling out my pistol.

Immediately she flung herself upon the one that moaned and whined at her
feet, crying:

"If you dare! If you dare!" Then she burst into passionate sobbing.
"You bad Loo! You bad, dear old Loo! But you WERE bad--you KNOW you
were bad!" and so she went on with her arms about Loo's neck till Loo,
whining and quivering with love and delight, threatened to go quite
mad, and Wolf, standing majestically near, broke into short howls of
impatience for his turn of caressing. They made a strange group, those
three wild things, equally fierce and passionate in hate and in love.

Suddenly the girl remembered me, and standing up she said, half ashamed:

"They always obey ME. They are MINE, but they kill any strange thing
that comes in through the gate. They are allowed to."

"It is a pleasant whim."

"What?"

"I mean, isn't that dangerous to strangers?"

"Oh, no one ever comes alone, except The Duke. And they keep off the
wolves."

"The Duke comes, does he?"

"Yes!" and her eyes lit up. "He is my friend. He calls me his
'princess,' and he teaches me to talk and tells me stories--oh,
wonderful stories!"

I looked in wonder at her face, so gentle, so girlish, and tried to
think back to the picture of the girl who a few moments before had so
coolly threatened to shoot me and had so furiously beaten her dogs.

I kept her talking of The Duke as we walked back to the gate, watching
her face the while. It was not beautiful; it was too thin, and the mouth
was too large. But the teeth were good, and the eyes, blue-black with
gray rims, looked straight at you; true eyes and brave, whether in love
or in war. Her hair was her glory. Red it was, in spite of Hi's denial,
but of such marvellous, indescribable shade that in certain lights, as
she rode over the prairie, it streamed behind her like a purple banner.
A most confusing and bewildering color, but quite in keeping with the
nature of the owner.

She gave her pinto to Joe and, standing at the door, welcomed me with
a dignity and graciousness that made me think that The Duke was not far
wrong when he named her "Princess."

The door opened upon the main or living room. It was a long, apartment,
with low ceiling and walls of hewn logs chinked and plastered and all
beautifully whitewashed and clean. The tables, chairs and benches were
all home-made. On the floor were magnificent skins of wolf, bear, musk