he real story--for how she slept there does not
matter--but it was good to see when we knew the story."

The Trapper was laughing silently to himself to hear Pierre in this
romantic mood. A woman's hand--it was the game for a boy, not an
adventurer; for the Trapper's only creed was that women, like deer, were
spoils for the hunter. Pierre's keen eye noted this, but he was above
petty anger. He merely said: "If a man have an eye to see behind the
face, he understands the foolish laugh of a man, or the hand of a good
woman, and that is much. Hilton's wife told us all. She had rode two
hundred miles from the south-west, and was making for Fort Micah, sixty
miles farther north. For what? She had loved a man against the will of
her people. There had been a feud, and Garrison--that was the lover's
name--was the last on his own side. There was trouble at a Company's
post, and Garrison shot a half-breed. Men say he was right to shoot him,
for a woman's name must be safe up here. Besides, the half-breed drew
first. Well, Garrison was tried, and must go to jail for a year. At the
end of that time he would be free. The girl Janie knew the day. Word
had come to her. She made everything ready. She knew her brothers were
watching--her three brothers and two other men who had tried to get her
love. She knew also that they five would carry on the feud against the
one man. So one night she took the best horse on the ranch and started
away towards Fort Micah. Alors, you know how she got to Guidon Hill
after two days' hard riding--enough to kill a man, and over fifty yet to
do. She was sure her brothers were on her track. But if she could get to
Fort Micah, and be married to Garrison before they came; she wanted no
more.

"There were only two horses of use at Hilton's Post then; all the rest
were away, or not fit for hard travel. There was my Tophet, and a lean
chestnut, with a long propelling gait, and not an ounce of loose skin on
him. There was but one way: the girl must get there. Allons, what is
the good? What is life without these things? The girl loves the man: she
must have him in spite of all. There was only Hilton and his wife and me
at the Post, and Hilton was lame from a fall, and one arm in a sling.
If the brothers followed, well, Hilton could not interfere--he was a
Company's man; but for myself, as I said, I was hungry for adventure,
I had an ache in my blood for something. I was tingling to the toes,
my heart was thumping