stopping to light his pipe before he strolled on to the house and to the
armchair upon the porch.

There might be a sinister meaning in that picture, but it was so well
hidden that he had little hope of ever finding it. Also, it occurred to
him that Peppajee, usually given over to creature comforts and the idle
gossip of camp and the ranches he visited, was proving the sincerity of
his manifest uneasiness by a watchfulness wholly at variance with his
natural laziness. On the other hand, Peppajee loved to play the oracle,
and a waving wisp of smoke, or the changing shapes in a wind-riven cloud
meant to him spirit-sent prophecies not to be ignored.

He turned the matter over in his mind, was the victim of uneasiness for
five minutes, perhaps, and then drifted off into wondering what Evadna
was doing at that particular moment, and to planning how he should
manage to fall behind with her when they all rode home, and so make
possible other delicious moments. He even took note of certain sharp
bends in the trail, where a couple riding fifty yards, say, behind a
group would be for the time being quite hidden from sight and to
all intents and purposes alone in the world for two minutes, or
three--perhaps the time might be stretched to five.

The ranch was quiet, with even the dogs asleep in the shade. Peppajee
insisted in one sentence upon going straight on to camp, so they did not
stop. Without speaking, they plodded through the dust up the grade, left
it, and followed the dim trail through the sagebrush and rocks to the
Indian camp which seemed asleep also, except where three squaws were
squatting in the sharply defined, conical shadow of a wikiup, mumbling
desultorily the gossip of their little world, while their fingers
moved with mechanical industry--one shining black head bent over a
half-finished, beaded moccasin, another stitching a crude gown of
bright-flowered calico, and the third braiding her hair afresh with
leisurely care for its perfect smoothness. Good Indian took note of
the group before it stirred to activity, and murmured anxiety over the
bandaged foot of Peppajee.

"Me no can watchum more, mebbyso six days. Yo' no sleepum all time
yo' walk--no thinkum all time squaw. Mebbyso yo' think for man-snake.
Mebbyso yo' watchum," Peppajee said, as he swung slowly down from
Huckleberry's back.

"All right. I'll watchum plenty," Good Indian promised lightly, gave a
glance of passing, masculine interest at the sq