at no overt act would be committed until after she and
Yamanatz should be far away towards the "Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water."

The new grass was beginning to show itself along the creek. Mountain
crocuses bloomed in the edge of the fast melting snow, as the white
blanket gradually receded towards the tops of the high peaks under the
heat of the early spring sun. Chiquita watched the beaver dams as the
inhabitants industriously fashioned new homes for the next winter,
cutting down the big trees and laying in a supply of willows for food
and comfort. She looked toward the sun as he peered down into the deep
canons and besought the sun god to hurry Jack upon his way.

It was near midday, and Chiquita sat in a little grove of pinons,
watching the splashing waters and gleaming flash of a trout darting
hither and thither for a morsel as it swept along in the vicious,
turbulent stream. She had hung a branch of spruce buds, entwined with a
vine of Kilikinnick, upon a convenient tree, and she knew that it would
bring Antelope to her. She knew the symbol by him would be interpreted,
"hope in peace," but she intended that his hope must result in peace. As
she listened she heard a voice close beside her. She had felt for some
time the forest intuition that some one was approaching, but so silently
had those footsteps glided along that no sound gave any warning.

"The daughter of Yamanatz is fair as the morning dove, and it pleases
Antelope to do her bidding, for is not Antelope a suitor for the hand of
Chiquita, and has not Antelope done many things that make him worthy of
the great chiefs daughter?"

"The son of Big Buffalo stands erect. He speaks with the tongue of one
who is a master, one day to be chief. Antelope is brave and his prowess
great enough to entitle him to the daughter of any chief."

"The daughter of Yamanatz is as good as she is fair in that she speaks
of Antelope in this wise, and it is a pleasure that the eyes of Antelope
go thirsty and his heart hungry for the return of the love which
Chiquita can give. It would be for Chiquita that Antelope would build
the signal fires, that the Utes may put on their war paint and sharpen
their hatchets to take the land where were the great buffalo before the
paleface drove them into the deep sea where the sun goes down, and when
the paleface has been driven away, then Antelope will claim Chiquita
that she may sing him songs of love by his camp fire. And when Antelope
is