.

"When people make the blunder of calling up the Indian," he went on
steadily, "they usually find that they have to deal with--the Indian."

Evadna looked at him again, and turned slowly white before her temper
surged to the surface again.

"I didn't call up the Indian," she defended hotly; "but if the Indian
wants to deal with me according to his nature--why, let him! But you
don't ACT like other people! I don't know another man who wouldn't have
been horrified at shooting me, even such a tiny little bit; but you
don't care at all. You never even said you were sorry."

"I'm not in the habit of saying all I think and feel."

"You were quick enough to apologize, after supper there, when you hadn't
really done anything; and now, when one would expect you to be at least
decently sorry, you--you--well, you act like the savage you are! There,
now! It may not be nice to say it, but it's the truth."

Grant smiled bitterly. "All men are savages under the skin," he said.
"How do YOU know what I think and feel? If I fail to come through with
the conventional patter, I am called an Indian--because my mother was
a half-breed." He threw up his head proudly, let his eyes rest for a
moment upon the moon, swimming through a white river of clouds just over
the tall poplar hedge planted long ago to shelter the orchard from the
sweeping west winds; and, when he looked down at her again, he caught a
glimpse of repentant tears in her eyes, and softened.

"Oh, you're a girl, and you demand the usual amount of poor-pussy talk,"
he told her maliciously. "So I'm sorry. I'm heartbroken. If it will
help any, I'll even kiss the hurt to make it well--and I'm not a kissing
young man, either, let me tell you."

"I'd die before I'd let you touch me!" Her repentance, if it was that,
changed to pure rage. She snatched the torn sheet from him and turned
abruptly toward the fence. He followed her, apparently unmoved by her
attitude; placed his foot upon the lower wire and pressed it into the
soft earth, lifted the one next above it as high as it would go, and
thus made it easier for her to pass through. She seemed to hesitate
for a moment, as though tempted to reject even that slight favor, then
stooped, and went through.

As the wires snapped into place, she halted and looked back at him.

"Maybe I've been mean--but you're been meaner," she summed up, in
self-justification. "I suppose the next thing you will do will be to
tell the boys. Well