k as could be, she spoke up and said it was she who had it, and
she didn't mind just where she left it. And as to where she was at that
time, well, she just wouldn't give us a bit of satisfaction. Blest if I
don't think she wanted us to suspect her."

"Oh!" he breathed, as if in understanding, and her first words swept back
to him, her nervous--"Why did you come back? They suspect me!" Surely that
cry was as a plea for his own safety; it spoke through eyes and voice as
well as words. Some glimmer of the truth came to him.

"Come, 'Tana!" he said, and reached his hand to her. "Where is the
man--Holly? I should like to go in. Will you come, too?"

She rose without a word, and no one attempted to follow them.

Mrs. Huzzard heaved a prodigious sigh of content.

"Oh, that girl Montana!" she exclaimed. "I declare she ain't like any girl
I ever did see! This morning, when she was a suspected criminal, she was
talky, and even laughed, and now that she's cleared, she won't lift her
head to look at any one. I do wonder if that sort of queerness is catching
in these woods. I declare I feel most scared enough to leave."

But Lyster reassured her.

"Remember how sick she has been; and think what a shock this whole affair
has been to weak nerves," he said, for with Dan's revelations he had grown
blissfully content once more, "and as for that fellow hearing voices in
her cabin--nonsense! She had been reading some poem or play aloud. She is
fond of reading so, and does it remarkably well. He heard her spouting in
there for the benefit of Harris, and imagined she was making threats to
some one. Poor little girl! I'm determined she sha'n't remain here any
longer."

"Are you?" asked Mrs. Huzzard, dryly. "Well, Mr. Max, so long as I've
known her, I've always found 'Tana makes her own determinations--and
sticks to them, too."

"I'm glad to be reminded of that," he retorted, "for she promised me
yesterday to marry me some time."

"Bless my soul!"

"If she didn't change her mind," he added, laughingly.

"To marry you! Well, well, well!" and she stared at him so queerly, that a
shade of irritation crossed his face.

"Why not?" he asked. "Don't you think that a plain, ordinary man is good
enough for your wild-flower of the Kootenai hills?"

"Oh, you're not plain at all, Mr. Max Lyster," she returned, "and I'll go
bail many a woman who is smarter than either 'Tana or me has let you know
it! It ain't the plainness--it's the differ