s--a little dim of eye and still tremulous of lip. And he
looked back, love's tragedy dawning in his gaze, yet forcing the smile
that the very young employ as a defiance to destiny and an artistic
insult in the face of Fate; that Fate which looks back so placid and
unmoved.

"Can you forgive me, Shiela?"

"Look at me?" she whispered.

* * * * *

A few moments later she hastily disengaged her hand.

"There seems to be a fire, yonder," he said; "and somebody seated before
it; your Seminole, I think. By Jove, Shiela, he's certainly
picturesque!"

A sullen-eyed Indian rose as they rode up, his turban brilliant in the
declining sunshine, his fringed leggings softly luminous as woven cloth
of gold.

"He--a--mah, Coacochee!" said the girl in friendly greeting. "It is good
to see you, Little Tiger. The people of the East salute the Uchee
Seminoles."

The Indian answered briefly and with dignity, then stood impassive, not
noticing Hamil.

"Mr. Hamil," she said, "this is my old friend Coacochee or Little Tiger;
an Okichobi Seminole of the Clan of the Wind; a brave hunter and an
upright man."

"Sommus-Kala-ne-sha-ma-lin," said the Indian quietly; and the girl
interpreted: "He says, 'Good wishes to the white man.'"

Hamil dismounted, turned and lifted Shiela from her saddle, then walked
straight to the Seminole and offered his hand. The Indian grasped it in
silence.

"I wish well to Little Tiger, a Seminole and a brave hunter," said Hamil
pleasantly.

The red hand and the white hand tightened and fell apart.

A moment later Gray came galloping up with Eudo Stent.

"How are you, Coacochee!" he called out; "glad to see you again! We saw
the pine tops blue a mile back."

To which the Seminole replied with composure in terse English. But for
Mr. Cardross, when he arrived, there was a shade less reserve in the
Indian's greeting, and there was no mistaking the friendship between
them.

"Why did you speak to him in his own tongue?" asked Hamil of Shiela as
they strolled together toward the palmetto-thatched, open-face camp
fronting on Ruffle Lake.

"He takes it as a compliment," she said. "Besides he taught me."

"It's a pretty courtesy," said Hamil, "but you always do everything more
graciously than anybody else in the world."

"I am afraid you are biassed."

"Can any man who knows you remain non-partisan?--even your red Seminole
yonder?"

"I am proud of that conquest," she s