hen she came out.

"You have seen for yourself," she said.

Lowell nodded, and they stepped out into the yard once more.

"I'll leave matters to your own judgment," said Lowell, "only I'm asking
two things of you. One is to let me know if things go wrong, and the
other isn't quite so important, but it will please me a lot. It's just
to go riding with me right now."

Helen smilingly assented. Once more she was the girl he had brought over
from the agency. She ran indoors and spoke a few words to Wong, and came
out putting on her hat.

They drove for miles toward the heart of the Indian reservation. The
road had changed to narrow, parallel ribbons, with grass between.
Cattle, some of which belonged to the Indians and some to white leasers,
were grazing in the distance. Occasionally they could see an Indian
habitation--generally a log cabin, with its ugliness emphasized by the
grace of a flanking tepee. Everything relating to human affairs seemed
dwarfed in such immensity. The voices of Indian herdsmen, calling to
each other, were reduced to faint murmurs. The very sound of the motor
seemed blanketed.

Lowell and the girl traveled for miles in silence. He shrewdly suspected
that the infinite peace of the landscape would prove the best tonic for
her overwrought mind. His theory proved correct. The girl leaned back in
the seat, and, taking off her hat, enjoyed to the utmost the rush of the
breeze and the swift changes in the great panorama.

"It isn't any wonder that the Indians fought hard for this country, is
it?" asked Lowell. "It's all too big for one's comprehension at first,
especially when you've come from brick walls and mere strips of sky, but
after you've become used to it you can never forget it."

"I'd like to keep right on going to those blue mountains," said the
girl. "It's wonderful, but a bit appalling, to a tenderfoot such as I
am. I think we'd better go back."

Lowell drove in a circuitous route instead of taking the back trail.
Just after they had swung once more into the road near the ranch, they
met a horseman who proved to be Bill Talpers. The trader reined his
horse to the side of the road and motioned to Lowell to stop. Bill's
grin was bestowed upon the girl, who uttered a little exclamation of
dismay when she established the identity of the horseman.

"I jest wanted to ask if you found anything up there," said Bill,
jerking his thumb toward the road over which he had just ridden. It was
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