bow an' go lookin' for that man--go lookin' for him
in th' mountings, in th' lowlands, anywhere--even if I had to cross th'
oceans that they tell about, in order to come up with him!"

Her voice had been intensely vibrant with strong passion as she said
this, and her quivering form told even plainer how deep-seated was the
hate that gave birth to her words. But soon she put all this excitement
from her and dropped her hands in a loose gesture of hopeless
relaxation.

"But I know such thoughts are foolish," she said drearily. "He got away.
A girl can't carry on a feud alone, nohow. There's nothin' I can do."

Again, now, with a passing thought, her features lighted as another
maiden's, whose young life had been cast by fate in gentler places might
have lighted at the thought of some great pleasure pending in the
future.

"There is a chance, though," she said, with a fierce joy, "that Lem
Lindsay, if he is alive, 'll git th' bullet that he earned that day. Joe
Lorey's livin'--that's Ben's son--an' he--well, maybe, some time--ah, he
can shoot as straight as anybody in these mountings!"

The look of a young tigress was on her face.

It made the young man who was listening to her shudder--the look upon
her face, the voice with which she said "And he can shoot as straight as
anybody in these mountings!" For a second it revolted him. Then,
getting a fairer point of view, he smiled at her with a deep sympathy,
and waited.

He had not to wait long before a gentler mood held dominance. It came,
indeed, almost at once.

"No," she said slowly, "a girl can't carry on a feud alone, nohow....
And, somehow, when I think of it most times, I really don't want to.
It's only now an' then I get stirred up, like this. Most times I'd
rather learn than--go on fightin' like we-all always have.... I'd rather
learn, somehow.... An'--an'--an' that's been mighty hard--_is_ mighty
hard"

"You--haven't had much chance," said he, looking at her pityingly.

She gave him a quick glance. Had she really thought he pitied her she
would have bitterly resented it.

"Had th' same chance other mounting girls have," she said quickly,
defending, not herself, but her country and her people.

She stood, now, at a distance from the fire, for it was blazing merrily,
but her face was flushed by its radiant heat, its lurid blaze made a
fine background for the supple, swaying beauty of her slim young body.
She raised her arms high, high above her head, w