from his
hostess that the Indian encampment he sought lay well to the
southwestward of her cabin, and that by a way she could direct him he
could reach it easily in a two-hours' ride. This to Tempest, who had
rested and fed, would be nothing, if he was anything the horse he used
to be, and Gaspar believed, from the past night's experience, that
sometimes even a horse can improve with age.

"Well, I'll be off, then. I'm anxious to get there. If all goes well
I'll get around this way again before long. Thank you for my
entertainment, and here's a trifle for the baby."

He tossed a gold piece on the table and was leaving the cabin. But she
restrained him.

"No, sir, I can't take that, nor let the little one. And as for
thanking me, I shall never cease to thank you, and the Lord for you,
that you lost your way last night. But let me beg you, sir, to take a
second thought. Jacob says the Indians are getting ready for an
outbreak. It is like running your neck into a halter to go among them
just now. I--I wish you wouldn't. I couldn't bear to have harm come to
you after what you've done for me."

"Thank you, but I must go. I am not much afraid for myself at any
time, for I've known the red-skins always and--trusted them never! But
a girl--did you ever hear of the Sun Maid?"

"Hear of her? Her? Well, I guess so! Who hasn't, in these parts? Why?"

"It was to find her and protect her that I started last night from the
Fort."

"To _protect_ her? Well, you could have saved your trouble. I wish
that I was as safe in this wild country as she is. There is an old
saying that her life is charmed; that nothing evil can ever happen to
her; and so far it has proved true. As for the Indians, even the
wickedest in the whole race would die to save her life. I hope you'll
find her, sir, all right; but if there's any protecting to be done,
she'll protect you, not you her. Well, good-by, and good luck!"

Gaspar bared his head and rode away, on a straight trail this time,
and with the exhilaration of the morning tingling through his
healthful veins. On every side the great clouds of white mist rose and
rolled apart. Blue violets and white windflowers began to peep upward
at him from his path, and he remembered Kitty's love for them. Then
the sun broke through, and only those who have thus ridden across a
dew-drenched prairie, at such an hour in such a season, can picture
what that ride was like.

The spirit of life and love and that