race! All the manhood,
all the heart-hunger of the isolated years, surged within him. He smiled
rather piteously. He had not realized that he was starving for the sight
of fair skin, sunny hair and slender hands; for a bonny white
face--white--white! That was it! A white face, a womanly face! He hardly
noticed the muttered "How" of Pine Coulee as she passed, her young babe
slung over her back. But he returned her salutation, and after they
passed each other he recalled a look on her usually expressionless face
that he had never seen there before.

"Here, Phil! Wait for us!" Latimer was calling, and Danvers soon forgot
his perturbation in the pleasure of the doctor's presence and
congratulations, as he came up with Arthur.

"Got so you can talk, eh?" asked the doctor, noting how the young men
vied in their efforts to entertain him. "I told the colonel that I was
coming up here to see you, fully as much as him--good friends as we are.
You are good to look at, both of you."

"Arthur always could talk," smiled Danvers, "and I can--with my
friends."

"How is Burroughs getting along?" asked the doctor, as the trader passed
them, too absorbed, apparently, in the recollection of his meeting with
Miss Thornhill to note either them or Pine Coulee, who followed him.

"Remarkably well, from a financial standpoint. His living with a squaw
makes him popular with the Indians, and the colonel swears by
him--thinks he's perfect."

"And the trade in whiskey?"

Latimer shrugged his shoulders expressively.

"That's Bob's squaw," said Arthur, after an awkward pause. "She's as
proud as a peacock of that papoose. She rather lords it over her former
associates of the lodges."

The doctor whistled. He knew Pine Coulee's story, but had not heard of
the child. "Bob will want to marry some day," was his sole comment. "Has
Me-Casto ever been caught?"

"No. When he does turn up, Robert Burroughs may look out for trouble."

"Why did Toe String Joe leave the Force?" asked the doctor presently.
"He has been in Fort Benton for some little time."

"Drummed out of the service. But he wouldn't tell who supplied him with
the whiskey. What is he doing now?"

"Joe is mining. He declares he will be a millionaire."

"He'll be a millionaire when Danvers turns American and runs for
office," scoffed Latimer, remembering Joe's shiftless disposition and
making the most improbable comparison that he could think of.

"He will never be one, then," sa