pon the thought he had honorably
avoided.

"Suppose," he said, with a constrained laugh, "I had stayed to see you."

"I reckon I ain't your kind, neither," she replied promptly. There was
a momentary pause when she rose and walked to the chimney. "It's
very quiet down there," she said, stooping and listening over the
roughly-boarded floor that formed the ceiling of the room below. "I
wonder what's going on."

In the belief that this was a delicate hint for his return to the party
he had left, Hale rose, but the girl passed him hurriedly, and, opening
the door, cast a quick glance into the stable beyond.

"Just as I reckoned--the horses are gone too. They've skedaddled," she
said blankly.

Hale did not reply. In his embarrassment a moment ago the idea of taking
an equally sudden departure had flashed upon him. Should he take this as
a justification of that impulse, or how? He stood irresolutely gazing
at the girl, who turned and began to descend the stairs silently. He
followed. When they reached the lower room they found it as they had
expected--deserted.

"I hope I didn't drive them away," said Hale, with an uneasy look at the
troubled face of the girl. "For I really had an idea of going myself a
moment ago."

She remained silent, gazing out of the window. Then, turning with a
slight shrug of her shoulders, said half defiantly: "What's the use now?
Oh, Maw! the Stanner crowd has vamosed the ranch, and this yer stranger
kalkilates to stay!"

CHAPTER VII

A week had passed at Eagle's Court--a week of mingled clouds and
sunshine by day, of rain over the green plateau and snow on the
mountain by night. Each morning had brought its fresh greenness to the
winter-girt domain, and a fresh coat of dazzling white to the barrier
that separated its dwellers from the world beyond. There was little
change in the encompassing wall of their prison; if anything, the snowy
circle round them seemed to have drawn its lines nearer day by day. The
immediate result of this restricted limit had been to confine the range
of cattle to the meadows nearer the house, and at a safe distance from
the fringe of wilderness now invaded by the prowling tread of predatory
animals.

Nevertheless, the two figures lounging on the slope at sunset gave very
little indication of any serious quality in the situation. Indeed,
so far as appearances were concerned, Kate, who was returning from an
afternoon stroll with Falkner, exhibited, with