you too much for that, Miss Necia. Seems as if I'm almost a
daddy to you, and I've only knowed you for a few weeks--"

"Go ahead and tell me; I won't be offended," insisted the girl. "You
must. I don't know much about such things, for I've lived all my life
with men like father and Poleon, and the priests at the Mission, who
treat me just like one of themselves. But somebody will want to marry
me some day, I suppose, so I ought to know what is wrong with me." She
flushed up darkly under her brown cheeks.

The feeling came over Corporal Thomas that he had hurt a helpless
animal of some gentle kind; that he was bungling his work, and that he
was not of the calibre to go into the social amenities. He began to
perspire uncomfortably, but went on, doggedly:

"I'm goin' to tell you a story, not because it applies to Lieutenant
Burrell, or because he's in love with you, which of course he ain't any
more than you be with him--"

"Of course," said the girl.

"--but just to show you what I mean. It was a good long spell ago, when
I was at Fort Supply, which was the frontier in them days like this is
now. We freighted in from Dodge City with bull teams, and it was sure
the fringe of the frontier; no women--no society--nothin' much except a
fort, a lot of Injuns, and a few officials with their wives and
families. Now them kind of places is all right for married men, but
they're tough sleddin' for single ones, and after a while a feller gets
awful careless about himself; he seems to go backward and run down
mighty quick when he gets away from civilization and his people and
restaurants and such things; he gets plumb reckless and forgetful of
what's what. Well, there was a captain with us, a young feller that
looked like the Lieutenant here, and a good deal the same
sort--high-tempered and chivalrious and all that sort of thing; a West
Pointer, too, good family and all that, and, what's more, a captain at
twenty-five. Now, our head freighter was married to a squaw, or
leastways he had been, but in them days nobody thought much of it any
more than they do up here now, and particularly because he'd had a
government contract for a long while, ran a big gang of men and
critters, and had made a lot of money. Likewise he had a girl, who
lived at the fort, and was mighty nice to look at, and restful to the
eye after a year or so of cactus-trees and mesquite and buffalo-grass.
She was twice as nice and twice as pretty as the women at th