journey, taken somewhat gingerly along the principal trail, was
accomplished without incident. It was the fore-runner of many others,
plunging deeper and deeper into the fastnesses of the foothills, and
even into the passes of the very mountains themselves. These long
rides through the almost untracked wilderness, frequently along paths
on which the element of danger was by no means a mere fancy, and into
regions where the girl's sense of distance and direction were totally
confused, afforded her many side-lights on the remarkable nature of her
escort. His patience was infinite, and, although there were no silk
trappings to his courtesy, it was a very genuine and manly deference he
paid her. She was quite sure that he would at any moment give his life
if needed to defend her from injury--and accept the transaction as a
matter of course. His physical endurance was inexhaustible, and his
knowledge of prairie and foothill seemed to her almost uncanny. When
she had been utterly lost for hours he would suddenly swing their
horses' heads about and guide them home with the accuracy of the wild
goose on its nights to the nesting grounds. He read every sign of
footprint, leaf, water, and sky with unfailing insight. He had no
knowledge of books, and she had at first thought him ignorant, but as
the days went by she had found in him a mine of wisdom which shamed her
ready-made education.

[Illustration: These long rides afforded her many side-lights on the
remarkable nature of her escort.]

After such a ride they one day dismounted in a grassy opening among the
trees that bordered a mountain canyon. The waters of ages had
chiselled a sharp passage through the rock, and the green stream now
swirled in its rapid course a hundred feet below. Fragments of rock,
loosened by the sun and wind and frost of centuries, had fallen from
time to time, leaving sheltered nooks and shelves in the walls of the
canyon. In one of these crevices they found a flat stone that gave
comfortable seating, and here they rested while the horses browsed
their afternoon meal on the grass above. Little irregular bits of
stone had broken off the parent rock, and for awhile they amused
themselves with tossing these into the water. But both were conscious
of a gradually increasing tension in the atmosphere. For days the boy
had been moody. It was evident he was harbouring something that was
calling through his nature for expression, and Irene knew