Necia again. "But what would happen to Lieutenant
Burrell if--if--well, if he should do something like that? There are
many half-breed girls, I dare say, like this other girl, or--like me."

She did not flush now as before; instead, her cheeks were pale.

"It would go a heap worse with him than it did with Captain Jefferson,"
said the Corporal, "for he's got more ahead of him and he comes from
better stock. Why, his family is way up! They're all soldiers, and
they're strong at headquarters; they're mighty proud, too, and they
wouldn't stand for his doing such a thing, even if he wanted to. But he
wouldn't try; he's got too much sense, and loves the army too well for
that. No, sir! He'll go a long ways, that boy will, if he's let alone."

"I never thought of myself as an Indian," said Necia, dully. "In this
country it's a person's heart that counts."

"That's how it ought to be," said the Corporal, heartily; "and I'm
mighty sorry if I've hurt you, little girl. I'm a rough old rooster,
and I never thought but what you understood all this. Up here folks
look at it right, but outside it's mighty different; even yet you don't
half understand."

"I'm glad I'm what I am!" cried the girl. "There's nothing in my blood
to be ashamed of, and I'm white in here!" She struck her bosom
fiercely. "If a man loves me he'll take me no matter what it means to
him."

"Right for you," assented the other; "and if I was younger myself, I'd
sure have a lot of nice things to say to you. If I'd 'a' had somebody
like you I'd 'a' let liquor alone, maybe, and amounted to something,
but all I'm good for now is to give advice and draw my pay." He slid
down from the counter where he had been sitting. "I'm goin' to hunt up
the Lieutenant and get him to let me off. Mebbe I can stake a claim and
sell it."

The moment he was gone the girl's composure vanished and she gave vent
to her feelings.

"It's a lie! It's a lie!" she cried, aloud, and with her fists she beat
the boards in front of her. "He loves me! I know he does!" Then she
began, to tremble, and sobbed: "I'm just like other girls."

She was still wrestling with herself when Gale returned, and he started
at the look in her face as she approached him.

"Why did you marry my mother?" she asked. "Why? Why did you do it?"

He saw that she was in a rage, and answered, bluntly, "I didn't."

She shrank at this. "Then why didn't you? Shame! Shame! That makes me
worse than I thought I was. Oh