a banquet.

As soon as the dishes was off our hands, we started in to be jovial. Me
an' the Kid wasn't just altogether at home, but Bill was right in his
element. He played, an' him an' her sang, an' they talked, an' it was
the most festive function I ever see; until the pup came in an' jumped
up on the wide bunk where she was settin'. "Oh, take that horrid
bull-dog away!" she squealed.

I dreaded the result; but I sez to myself, "Now surely that doggone
ijit won't throw a call-down into the lady." but he did. "Miss
Johnston," sez he, "that ain't no bulldog. That's a high-bred London
bull-terrier. How would you like to be called a Chinaman? Come here,
Cupid."

It was like throwin' a bucket o' water on a bed o' coals. Bill was like
an oyster from that on, an' the girl looked as if she'd been slapped. I
was mad all the way through. It's all right for a man to be crazy, if
he'll only keep it private, but the' ain't no sense in tryin' to get
the whole balance o' creation over to his side.

The Colonel thought it a mighty prime joke to have his niece called
down over a bull pup, an' he chuckled about it consid'able. Next
mornin' he made Bill promise to come over an' visit him; but the girl
said HER good-byes to me an' the Kid. From that on, Bill was over to
headquarters half his time, but it didn't do him much good. The girl
wouldn't stand for the pup, an' Bill wouldn't go back on him; so it
looked purty much like a deadlock.

One Sunday about the first of August, we was all sittin' in the shade
of the shack, lookin' down into the valley. The shack backed up against
a massive crag on the edge of a high plateau. The road from
headquarters came in from the North, wound around a steep butte, then
along the top o' the cliff to where it slid down into the valley to
Danders.

We heard the thud o' hoofs an' turnin' around, we saw the Colonel's
niece tearin' down the road on a big hoss. It was a plain case of
runaway, an' I felt something break inside my chest. They were headin'
straight for the top o' the cliff, the hoss was goin' too fast to make
the turn, an' we was too far off to beat him to it.

We simply stood there like a flock o' sheep, without a single thought
among us. The' didn't seem to be a thing to do, but just watch 'em
plunge two hundred feet into the ravine. I glanced at Bill, but I
hardly knew him. His brows was drawn down like a wildcat's, his jaws
was clamped so tight you could hear 'em grit, an' his eye