eemed intolerable, she
listened to him with a new interest. He became a definite possibility--a
refuge.

Encouraged by this slight change in her attitude towards him, Lawson
took a ring from his pocket one night and said, "I wish you'd wear this,
Elsie Bee Bee."

She drew back. "I can't do that. I'm not ready to promise anything yet."

"It needn't bind you," he pleaded. "It needn't mean any more than you
care to have it mean. But I think our understanding justifies a ring."

"That's just it," she answered, quickly. "I don't like you to be so
solemn about our 'understanding.' You promised to let me think it all
out in my own way and in my own time."

"I know I did--and I mean to do so. Only"--he smiled with a wistful look
at her--"I would have you observe that I have developed three gray hairs
over my ears."

She took the ring slowly, and as she put the tip of her finger into it a
slight premonitory shudder passed over her.

"You are sure you understand--this is no binding promise on my part?"

"It will leave you as free as before."

"Then I will wear it," she said, and slipped it to its place. "It is a
beautiful ring."

He bent and kissed her fingers. "And a beautiful hand, Elsie Bee Bee."

Now, lying alone in the soundless deep of the night, she went over that
scene, and the one through which she had just passed. "He's a dear,
good fellow, and I love him--but not like that." And the thought that it
was all over between them, and the decision irrevocably made, was at
once a pain and a pleasure. The promise, slight as it was, had been a
burden. "Now I am absolutely free," she said, in swift, exultant
rebound.

XIX

THE SHERIFF'S MOB

The next day was cloudless, with a south wind, and the little, crawling
brook which watered the agency seemed about to seethe. The lower
foot-hills were already sere as autumn, and the ponies came down to
their drinking-places unnaturally thirsty; and the cattle, wallowing in
the creek-bed, seemed at times to almost stop its flow. The timid trees
which Curtis had planted around the school-house and office were plainly
suffering for lack of moisture, and the little gardens which the Indians
had once more been induced to plant were in sore distress.

The torrid sun beat down into the valley from the unclouded sky so
fiercely that the idle young men of the reservation postponed their
horse-racing till after sunset. Curtis felt the heat and dust very
keenly on his gue