me
life had offered her. There was something about him, a suggestion of
depths hidden and shut away from her that filled her with the
venturesome curiosity of Fatima opening the cupboards in Bluebeard's
castle.

"We'd feel so lonely if you went on and left us behind with a lot of
strange people," she said, with increasing softness. "We'd miss you
so."

The young man turned quickly on her, leaned nearer, and said huskily:

"Would you?"

The movement brought his face close to hers, and she shrank back
sharply, her hand ready to hold him at a distance. Her laughing
expression changed into one of offended dignity, almost aversion. At
the same time his agitation, which had paled his cheeks and burst
through his shy reserve, filled her with repulsion. For the moment she
disliked him. If he had tried to put his hand upon her she would have
struck him in quick rage at his presumption. He had not the slightest
intention of doing so, but the sudden rush of feeling that her words
had evoked, made him oblivious to the startled withdrawal of her manner.

"Answer me," he said. "Would you miss me? Am I anything to you?"

She leaped to her feet, laughing not quite naturally, for her heart was
beating hard and she had suddenly shrunk within herself, her spirit
alert and angrily defensive in its maiden stronghold.

"Miss you," she said in a matter-of-fact tone that laid sentiment dead
at a blow, "of course I'd miss you," then backed away from him,
brushing off her skirt.

He rose and stood watching her with a lover's hang-dog look. She
glanced at him, read his face and once more felt secure in her
ascendency. Her debonair self-assurance came back with a lowering of
her pulse and a remounting to her old position of condescending
command. But a parting lesson would not be amiss and she turned from
him, saying with a carefully tempered indifference:

"And Leff, too. I'd miss Leff dreadfully. Come, it's time to go."

Before he could answer she was climbing the bank, not looking back,
moving confidently as one who had no need of his aid. He followed her
slowly, sore and angry, his eyes on her figure which flitted in advance
clean-cut against the pale, enormous sky.

He had just caught up with her when from a hollow near the roadside
Leff came into view. He had been after antelope and carried his rifle
and a hunting knife in his belt. During the chase he had come upon a
deserted Pawnee settlement in a depression