By
sundown, they'll begin changing the sentries at Brannon every hour. No
one man could stay out even half the night. And this shack has to be
guarded till morning. I must get someone to relieve me."

"I suppose you're right," she said reluctantly.

He brought the horse about. "Is there anything I can do before I go?" he
asked.

"No. We've got everything but wood, and Charley brings us that."

"Charley," repeated Lounsbury. "Who's Charley?"

She told him.

He seemed relieved. "I'll look that Indian up," he said, and raised his
hand to his cap.

From the road, he looked round. Despite the distance, he could see that
the girls were where he had left them, and Marylyn's head was once more
pressed against her sister. The sight made him writhe in his saddle, and
wish he were as old as the river-bluffs themselves, that he might go
back and protect them. As he descended to the ice their two faces rose
before him: One, pretty and pale, with the soft roundness of a child's,
the blue eyes filled with all a child's terror and entreaty; the other,
pale, too,--though upon it there still lingered the brown of the summer
sun--but firm of outline, its crown a heavy coil of braids, its centre,
eyes that were brave, steadfast, compelling.

The first picture blurred in remembering the second. "God bless her!" he
murmured. "To think she knew all the time, and never cheeped!"

At the shack, Dallas, too, was pondering--over a strange contrariety:
Their home was in danger, perhaps their very lives. Yet the day had
fulfilled its promise of the morning--it was the happiest in her life!

* * * * *

The ramshackle ferry-boat was firmly wedged in a dry-dock of ice on the
western side of the Missouri. As Lounsbury passed it, with his horse
following pluckily in spread-eagle fashion, he shouted for Old Michael.
But long before the river had floored, when it was edging and covering
only in the least swift places, the pilot had made his final crossing,
run the wheezy steamer, nose-in, against the bank, and deserted her. So
the storekeeper received no answering halloo. He was disappointed. It
was desirable to embroil as few as possible in the Lancaster dispute.
Old Michael, already a factor, was needed to act the picket--to fire a
warning signal if Matthews left Shanty Town.

A substitute was found at the stables. The storekeeper, as he rushed
away after disposing of his mount, came upon Lieutenant Fraser, b