The Barrier

he day she had questioned him about Burrell, this old man had taken every occasion to talk with the girl, and when he

it hadn't been a secret I would have told you befo

"if the Lieutenant will let

il by Black Bear Creek which

e observed, gazing at her shrewdly. "

l saw the look, and it bore out a theory he had formed during the past month, so, as he lingered, he set about a task that had lain in his mind for some time. As a

t was slick work jumpin' all those claims. It's just like

d Necia, "befrie

He's always doing favors

uble, could it, outside of S

of talk at headquarters when it's known what he's done for you and how he done it. I heard something about it down the street this morning, so I'm a

hasn't done anything that any man woul

at told me about it said he reckoned you two was in love." He hurried along now without offering h

e?" Neci

ng, just as he's too fine a fellow and got too much ahead

ned the girl. They were alone in the store, and so th

laughed in a highly artificial manner that ma

y as other girls, and I'm just as good. I know just a

outside you'd understand why it ain't possible. I can't tell you without hurtin' your feelin's, and I like you

my life with men like father and Poleon, and the priests at the Mission, who treat me just like one of themselves. But somebody w

ntle kind; that he was bungling his work, and that he was not of the calibre to go

o Lieutenant Burrell, or because he's in love with you,

e," said

g 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 the post, and as for money-well, her dad could have bought and sold all the officers in a lump; but they and their wives looked down on her, and she didn't mix with them none whatever. To make it short, the captain married her. Seemed like he got disregardful of everything, and the hunger to have a woman just overpowered him. She'd been courted by every single man for four hundred miles around. She was pretty and full of fire, and they was both of an age to love hard, so Jefferson swore he'd make the other women take her; but soldierin' is a heap different from any other profession, and the army has got its own traditions. The plan wouldn't work. By-and-by the captain got tired of trying, and gave up the attempt-just devoted himself to her-and then we was transferred, all but him. We shifted to a better post, but Captain Jefferson was changed to another company and had to s

ed voice. She had listened intently to the Corporal's story, but he ha

same. I told you this to show you how it is out

t Burrell if-if-well, if he should do something like that? There are

as before; instead,

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

an," said Necia, dully. "In this coun

little girl. I'm a rough old rooster, and I never thought but what you understood all this. Up h

d to be ashamed of, and I'm white in here!" She struck her bosom fier

ke 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 fr

rl's composure vanished and s

beat the boards in front of her. "He loves me! I know he does!" T

en Gale returned, and he started at the

mother?" she asked. "W

n a rage, and answere

! That makes me worse than I thought I was. Oh, why di

at ails you?"

not even a decent Indian. I'm a-a-" She shuddered. "You made me

" said Gale, quietly, taking her by the s

to my face; they're afraid of you, I suppose, b

e trader, but sh

m not respectable. I'm not like other wom

not!"

ice word,

wrong

a vagabond! The best I can get is

than hers now, but she disregarded him and abandoned

other and another and another-as long as I can cook and wash and work. In time my man will beat

's hand, choking and sobbing, until he loosed her; then she leaned exh

. "There's fifty good men in thi

a hand-sled and wear moccasins all my life, and raise children for men with w

l!" sai

ody in particular, but somebody like h

eman, for he realized that she was strung to a pitch of unreason

hat they were when I met Alluna. It wasn't the style to marry squaws where we came from, and neither of us ever thought about it

Surely you must have known what it would

world, and I've worked and starved and froze and saved, and so has Alluna, so that you might have something to live on when I'm gone, and be different to us. It won't be long now, I guess. I've given you the best schooling of any girl

ut you've lived a different life from other men and you see things differently. It was mean of me

great, hard hand as softly as a mother. But she shook her head, and he continued, "

ings as they are." Then she drew away and smiled at him brav

but he gazed after her for

little

ame upon her. She wanted to think this out, to find where she stood, before he had word with her. She had been led to observe herself from a strange angle, and must verify her vision, as it were. As yet she

Stark occupied near the water-front, where he had bought

ss. Are you reste

and would have continued on

thing against you. Your old man hasn't wasted any affection on me, and I can get a

han might have been expected. The man had exercised an occult influence upon her from the time she first saw him at Lee's cabin, but it was too vague for definite feeling, and she had been too strongly swayed by Poleon and her father in their attitude towards him to be conscious of it. Finding him now, however, in a gentle humor, she

es that he had driven. "As soon as the rush to the creek is over I'll hire a gang of me

is will be a big

ance. If it proves to be a false ala

a great many c

ears he had been on the frontier, and

they al

lies different but th

r arm. "And there is so much beyond that I want to know about-oh, I feel so ignorant

said he, smiling

or words, finally blurting

ark, and I've been raised to thin

l new countries,

egarded when civili

etty shiftless, and people don't pay much attention to t

which he remained silent, refusing to go on reco

d he. "What are

ant to know what people think of me. The men around

worry about that, Miss. It wouldn't make any difference to me or to

fference with some peop

people. They look at things kind o

dn't tolerate a girl like me for a moment, would they? The

eaking in among the 'bon-tonners.' But what's the use of thin

l distinction, but she saw Runnion, whom she could not bear, com

th that squaw, eh?" rem

girl, and I like her. I told her I didn't h

tter with you? It w

's, and I wanted to throw a jolt into Old Man Gale. I couldn't let the girl

minished up the street. "By Heaven! She's as graceful as a fa

musingly, in a gentle tone that

't you? I thought you had p

t like her

I'm dead sore o

an can't hold a good woman; he can win one

nt to keep one," Runnion re

that she is a squaw and isn't

to five that Burrell has thro

ht of that. Yo

shuffle up a hand

to him," said the gambler, dryly

yed there all the morning, and although the day was bright and the bushes bending with their burden of blue, she picked no berries, but fought resolutely through a dozen varying moods that mirrored themselves in her delicate face. It was her first soul struggle, but in time the buoyancy of youth and the almighty optimism of ea

sappeared into the hills, but the animals came trooping lazily to the bank, and sat down on their haunches watching the approaching steamer, in their soft eyes the sadness of a canine race of slaves. Behind them limped a sick man or two, a soldier from the bar

s way at once to John Gale's store, where he learned from the trader of the strike and of the s

ere. Won't you have my outfit put ashore?" He was followed

od enough for me,

ed. "This strike is new, and

rdy ones had cleared the gang-plank the news had flashed from shore to ship, and a swarm came up the bank and into the post, firing q

s busy unloading countless tons of merchandise and baggage billed to Dawson, and tents began to show their snowy whiteness here and there. As a man saw his outfit appear he would pounce upon it, a bundle at a time, and pile it

n landed, and by mid-afternoon a great tent had been stretched over a framework of peeled poles built on the lot where he and Necia had stood earlier in the day. Before dark his saloon was running. To be sure, there was no floor, and his polished fixtures looked strangely new and incongruous, but the town at large had assumed a similar air

iverbank was lined with canvas shelters, illumined dully by the tent-lights within till they looked like a nest of glowworms in deep grass. A long, hoa