egan
soberly. "I haven't been able yet to hit anything but the side of a barn.
Say, I'm wondering, suppose I had tried to shoot at those birds just now
and had missed, whether you wouldn't have laughed at me--quietly, all to
yourself, you know. Are you quite sure?"

The girl looked up at him solemnly without saying a word for a full
minute.

"Was what I said as bad as that?" she asked slowly.

"I'm afraid it was," he answered thoughtfully; "but I was a blamed idiot
for laughing at you. A girl that shoots like that may locate the Desert of
Sahara in Canada if she likes, and Canada ought to be proud of the honor."

She looked into his face for an instant, and noted his earnestness; and
all at once she broke into a clear ripple of laughter. The young man was
astonished anew that she had understood him enough to laugh. She must be
unusually keen-witted, this lady of the desert.

"If 'twas as bad as that," she said in quite another tone, "you c'n
laugh."

They looked at each other then in mutual understanding, and each fell to
eating his portion in silence. Suddenly the man spoke.

"I am eating your food that you had prepared for your journey, and I have
not even said, 'Thank you' yet, nor asked if you have enough to carry you
to a place where there is more. Where are you going?"

The girl did not answer at once; but, when she did, she spoke
thoughtfully, as if the words were a newly made vow from an impulse just
received.

"I am going to school," she said in her slow way, "to learn to 'sight' the
Desert of Sahara."

He looked at her, and his eyes gave her the homage he felt was her due;
but he said nothing. Here evidently was an indomitable spirit, but how did
she get out into the wilderness? Where did she come from, and why was she
alone? He had heard of the freedom of Western women, but surely such girls
as this did not frequent so vast a waste of uninhabited territory as his
experience led him to believe this was. He sat studying her.

The brow was sweet and thoughtful, with a certain keen inquisitiveness
about the eyes. The mouth was firm; yet there were gentle lines of grace
about it. In spite of her coarse, dark calico garb, made in no particular
fashion except with an eye to covering with the least possible fuss and
trouble, she was graceful. Every movement was alert and clean-cut. When
she turned to look full in his face, he decided that she had almost
beautiful eyes.

She had arisen while he was watc