e background of mysterious blackness, out of which a pine
bole gleamed ashy white.

Suddenly, silently, as though one of the tree-trunks had taken on life,
another Tetong appeared in the circle of the firelight and stood with
deep-sunk eyes fastened on the Captain's face. Another followed, and
still others, till two old men and four young fellows ranged themselves
in a semicircle before their agent, with Crane's Voice and Two Horns at
the left and a little behind. The old men smoked a long pipe, but the
young men rolled cigarettes, taking no part in the council, listening
the while with eyes as bright as those of foxes.

It was all sinister and menacing to the Parkers, and all wondered till
Curtis turned to say: "They are my mill-hands--good, faithful boys,
too."

"Mill-hands!" exclaimed Parker. "They looked uncommonly like a scalping
party."

"That is what imagination can do. I thought your faces were extra
solemn," remarked Curtis, dryly; but Lawson knew that the agent was not
so untroubled as he pretended, for old Crow Killer had a bitter story to
relate of the passage of a band of cowboys through his camp. They had
stampeded his ponies and shot at him, one bullet passing so close to his
ear that it burned the skin, and he was angry.

"They wish to kill us, these cattlemen," he said, sombrely, in
conclusion. "If they come again we will fight."

Happily, his vehemence did not reach the comprehension of the women nor
the understanding of Parker, and Lawson smoked on as calmly as if these
tell-tale gestures were the flecking of shadows cast by the leaping
flames. At last the red visitors rose and vanished as silently as they
came. They seemed to pass through black curtains, so suddenly they
disappeared.

In spite of all reassurance, the women were a little reluctant to go to
bed--at least Mrs. Parker and Elsie were.

"I wish the men's tent were not so far off," Mrs. Parker said to Elsie,
plaintively.

"I'll ask them to move it, if you wish," returned Elsie, and when Jennie
came in she said: "Aren't you a little nervous to-night?"

Jennie looked surprised. "Why, no! Do you mean about sleeping in a
tent?"

"Yes," replied Mrs. Parker. "Suppose a wolf or a redman should come?"

Jennie laughed. "You needn't worry--we have a powerful guard. I never am
afraid with George."

"But the men are so far away! I wish their tent were close beside ours.
I'm not standing on propriety," Mrs. Parker added, as Jennie hesit