The Sky Pilot

ssion was vivid. She lived remote from that centre of civilization known as Swan Creek in the postal guide, but locally as Old Latour's, far up among the hills n

day, trying to pin him down to someth

he said, with slow emp

What does she look like

looked slowly round as if searching f

do you mean? Hav

he ain't li

e decided upo

ied

air has she got? She'

choice combinations of profanity in repud

ed Hi. "Red! Tain't n

ed Hi's hai

t onto your old brush

ference. 'Tain'

off into a low, long, choking chuckle, ejacu

f your relatives persuade you to that. 'Tain't red!" and he threatened to go off again, but pulled himself up with dangerous suddenness. "It may be blue, cerulyum blue or even purple, but red-!" He paused

to Bill's oration, took up

he, Bill?" Bill nodded. "She kin bunch cattle an' cut

ow big

, it's the nerve. She's got the coldest kind of nerve y

e dropped that stee

?" I asked, ea

hin'," s

rted Hi. "Prett

as it?"

Meredith's round-up, but he don't speak

ad pulled The Duke from under the hoofs of a mad steer, and that little Gwen had, in the coolest possible manner, "sailed in on her bronco" and, by putting two bullets into the steer's head, had saved them both from great danger, perhaps f

to the sketch of Gwen was that her tem

young Hil

"'mem

to him sudden? Sar

did sh

e face with her qu

at

about her

earn, Ponka's son and G

in't no re

ng he had been apologizing for her, he added, with the air of o

e to another side

dith, the Old Timer, you know, has kept her up there among the hills. She sees no one but himself and Ponka's Blackfeet relations, who

th the Bl

them she is as safe as if surrounded by the Coldstream

"Has she any education

sh-that is, when she feels in the mood. And she knows all about the birds and beast

!" I said. "H

n or fifteen, I imagine; b

ther say to all this?

and with her proud little head thrown back, giving orders to Joe, and you will never again connect the idea of control with Gwen. She might be

e?" I asked, for I confess I was not much

f need be. Still," he added, after a pause, "it IS a shame, as you say. She ought to know something of the refinements of civilization, to which, after all, she belongs, and from wh

that I was engaged by the Old Timer to go up to his ranch every week an

es, till suddenly it settled into a valley which began with great width and narrowed to a canyon whose rocky sides were dressed out with shrubs and trailing vines and wet with trickling rivulets from the numerous springs that oozed and gushed from the black, glistening rocks. This canyon was an eerie place of which ghostly tales were told from the old Blackfeet

hite, sandy beach. Right in front stood the ranch buildings, upon a slight rising ground and surrounded by a sturdy palisade of upright pointed poles. This was the castle of the princess. I rode up to the open gate, then turned and stood to look down upon the marvellous lake shining and shimmering with its many radiant colors. Suddenly there was an awful roar, my pony shot round upon his hind legs after his beas

't you call back your dogs? They w

f brown-red hair, looked at me as if I were quite b

angry, "I will kill them," pull

" and she whipped out an ugly-looking revolver. From her face I had no doubt that she would not hesitate

them back? Won't

changed i

y? Do you love

myself of a sudden affectio

es, doubling like a hare, instinctively avoiding the canyon where he would be cornered. He was mad w

meet them, loosening her lariat as she went. As the pony neared the pinto he slackened his speed; immediately the nearer dog gathered herself in two short jumps and sprang for the pony's throat. But, even as she sprang, the lariat whirled round the girl's head and fell swift and sure about

ll kill them! I shall kill them!

," I suggested, pu

f upon the one that moaned a

on with her arms about Loo's neck till Loo, whining and quivering with love and delight, threatened to go quite mad, and Wolf, standing majestically near, broke

ered me, and standing up

they kill any strange thing that comes

pleasan

ha

that dangerou

one, except The Duke. And

e comes,

calls me his 'princess,' and he teaches me to t

think back to the picture of the girl who a few moments before had s

blue-black with gray rims, looked straight at you; true eyes and brave, whether in love or in war. Her hair was her glory. Red it was, in spite of Hi's denial, but of such marvellous, indescribabl

ed me with a dignity and graciousness that made me think th

or were magnificent skins of wolf, bear, musk ox and mountain goat. The walls were decorated with heads and horns of deer and mountain sheep, eagles' wings and a beautiful breast of a loon, which Gwen had shot and of which she was very pr

ery nook, shelf and corner was decked

ntrasts, but it fitted this quaint child t