nd means to a mount and surprised him one day by
appearing in habit and saddle ready to ride. For the life of him Sandy
could not look pleased at the prospect. Five years earlier, when
Priscilla was well-to-do, he might have found excuse to avoid or to
leave her. Now, in the days of her dependence, he could and would not;
but he proved a silent companion.

Across the fords and just at the eastern edge of the reservation they
passed on their return some ramshackle buildings, only two of which
showed signs of recent human occupation, and Priscilla spoke of their
abandoned look and then--wished she had refrained.

"Time was," said Sandy, "when they were bustling and lively enough. We
had no Exchange then, and the men wandered out here for their beer, and
here parted with their money and their hopes. Here they were drugged
till their last cent was wheedled or bullied out of them. Then they were
kicked out in the cold to take their punishment at the fort. Then it was
our _men_ that went to ruin. Now, as you see, it is only the ranch."

It was useless arguing with people so narrow-minded as her cousins,
thought poor 'Cilla, as she sharply touched her broncho with the lash
and drove him hock deep through the foaming waters. What all men should
see was that alcohol in any form was an enemy to be shunned and set
aside, a thing never to be tampered with or tolerated, and here were
sane and, in many ways, excellent people--people who had been to her
most loving and kind and charitable--who were willing to concede that
what she said might all be true, but were equally convinced that what
she would do was utterly impracticable--people who themselves eschewed
the use of wine, yet blindly persisted in providing it for these
children of the nation, the soldiers, because, as they said, most of the
soldiers could not be made to see the harm in malt or mild wine and
would drink vilest whisky if deprived of them. She considered Sandy a
scoffer, whereas Sandy did not scoff at all. He simply cited facts. She
longed for opportunity to convert him to her views and believed
implicitly that if he could but be made to listen he would surely see
the light, but whenever Cilla brought her batteries to bear he
confounded her with some such incontrovertible truth as this or--changed
the subject. This day she had planned a coup, and he had met her,
unexpectedly, more than halfway. By the time she had regained her
self-control they were past the sentr