you want to yell like a Comanche Indian when you went in?" he
demanded rudely, offering the only defense he could put mind or tongue
to. "A man would naturally suppose that you were falling."

"You didn't suppose any such thing!" she retorted sharply. "You saw me
dive; if you had the brains of a scared rabbit, you'd know that when a
girl had gone to the trouble to climb into a bathing-suit and then
jumped into the water she wanted a swim. And to be left alone," she
added scathingly.

Packard felt the afternoon breeze through the wet garments which stuck
so close to him, and shivered.

"If you think," he said, as sharply as she had spoken, "that I just
jumped into that infernal ice-pond, clothes and all, for the pure joy
of making your charming acquaintance in some ten feet of water, all I
can say is that you are by no means lacking a full appreciation of your
own attractiveness."

She opened her eyes widely at him, lying at his feet where he had
deposited her. She had not offered to rise. But now she sat up,
drawing her knees into the circle of her clasped arms, tilting her head
back as she stared up at him.

"You've got your nerve, Mr. Man," she informed him coolly. "Any time
that you think I'll stand for a fool man jumping in and spoiling my fun
for me and then scolding me on top of it, you've got another good-sized
think coming. And take it from me, you'll last a good deal longer in
this neck of the woods if you 'tend to your own business after this and
keep your paws off other folks' affairs. Get me that time?"

"I get you all right," grunted Packard. "And I find your gratitude to
a man who has just risked his life for you quite touching."

"Gratitude? Bah!" she told him, leaping suddenly to her feet. "Risked
your life for me, did you?" She laughed jeeringly at that. "Why, you
big lummox, I could have yanked you out as easy as turn a somersault if
you started to drown. And now suppose you hammer the trail while it's
open."

He bestowed upon her a glance whose purpose was to wither her. It
failed miserably, partly because she was patently not the sort to be
withered by a look from a mere man, and partly because a violent and
inopportune shiver shook him from head to foot.

Until now there had been only bright anger in the girl's eyes.
Suddenly the light there changed; what had begun as a sniff at him
altered without warning into a highly amused giggle.

"Golly, Mr. Man," she taunted him. "