y the great immortal Jehosaphat!"
he swore humorously, "I'd like to tie him up in his dirty blanket and
heave him into the river--only it would kill all the fish in the Malad."

Good Indian laughed.

"Oh, I know it's funny, young fella," Baumberger growled. "About as
funny as being pestered by a mosquito buzzing under your nose when
you're playing a fish that keeps cuttin' figure eights in a hole the
size uh that one there."

"I'll go up and take a look," Good Indian offered carelessly.

"Well, I wish you would. I can't keep my mind on m' fishing--just
wondering what the deuce he's after. And say! You tell him I'll stand
him on his off ear if I catch him doggie' me ag'in. Folks come with
yuh?" he remembered to ask as he prepared for another cast into the
pool.

"They're down there getting a campfire built, ready to fry what fish
they catch," Good Indian informed him, as he turned to climb the bluff.
"They're going to eat dinner under that big ledge by the rapids. You
better go on down."

He stood for a minute, and watched Baumberger make a dexterous cast,
which proved fruitless, before he began climbing up the steep slope of
jumbled bowlders upon which the bluff itself seemed to rest. He was
not particularly interested in his quest, but he was in the mood for
purposeless action; he still did not want to think.

He climbed negligently, scattering loose rocks down the hill behind
him. He had no expectation of coming upon Peppajee--unless Peppajee
deliberately put himself in his way--and so there was no need of
caution. He stopped once, and stood long minutes with his head turned to
catch the faint sound of high-keyed laughter and talk which drifted
up to him. If he went higher, he thought, he might get a glimpse of
them--of her, to tell his thought honestly. Whereupon he forgot all
about finding and expostulating with Peppajee, and thought only a point
of the ridge which would give him a clear view downstream.

To be sure, he might as easily have retraced his steps and joined the
group, and seen every changing look in her face. But he did not want
to be near her when others were by; he wanted her to himself, or not at
all. So he went on, while the sun beat hotly down upon him and the rocks
sent up dry waves of heat like an oven.

A rattlesnake buzzed its strident warning between two rocks, but before
he turned his attention to the business of killing it, the snake had
crawled leisurely away into a cleft, where