She sprang upon her pinto and set off down the trail.The pony was now coursing up and down the slopes, doubling like a hare, instinctively avoiding the canyon where he would be cornered.He was mad with terror at the huge brutes that were silently but with awful and sure swiftness running him down.
The girl on the pinto whistled shrilly, and called to her dogs:
"Down, Wolf! Back, Loo!" but, running low, with long, stretched bodies, they heeded not, but sped on, ever gaining upon the pony that now circled toward the pinto.As they drew near in their circling, the girl urged her pinto to 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 the dog's neck, and next moment she lay choking upon the prairie.Her mate paused, looked back, and gave up the chase.But dire vengeance overtook them, for, like one possessed, the girl fell upon them with her quirt and beat them one after the other till, in pity for the brutes, I interposed.
"They shall do as I say or I shall kill them! I shall kill them!"she cried, raging and stamping.
"Better shoot them," I suggested, pulling out my pistol.
Immediately she flung herself upon the one that moaned and whined at her feet, crying:
"If you dare! If you dare!" Then she burst into passionate sobbing."You bad Loo! You bad, dear old Loo! But you WERE bad--you KNOW you were bad!" and so she went 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 into short howls of impatience for his turn of caressing.
They made a strange group, those three wild things, equally fierce and passionate in hate and in love.
Suddenly the girl remembered me, and standing up she said, half ashamed:
"They always obey ME.They are MINE, but they kill any strange thing that comes in through the gate.They are allowed to.""It is a pleasant whim."
"What?"
"I mean, isn't that dangerous to strangers?""Oh, no one ever comes alone, except The Duke.And they keep off the wolves.""The Duke comes, does he?"
"Yes!" and her eyes lit up."He is my friend.He calls me his 'princess,' and he teaches me to talk and tells me stories--oh, wonderful stories!"I looked in wonder at her face, so gentle, so girlish, and tried to think back to the picture of the girl who a few moments before had so coolly threatened to shoot me and had so furiously beaten her dogs.
I kept her talking of The Duke as we walked back to the gate, watching her face the while.It was not beautiful; it was too thin, and the mouth was too large.But the teeth were good, and the eyes, 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, indescribable shade that in certain lights, as she rode over the prairie, it streamed behind her like a purple banner.A most confusing and bewildering color, but quite in keeping with the nature of the owner.
She gave her pinto to Joe and, standing at the door, welcomed me with a dignity and graciousness that made me think that The Duke was not far wrong when he named her "Princess."The door opened upon the main or living room.It was a long, apartment, with low ceiling and walls of hewn logs chinked and plastered and all beautifully whitewashed and clean.The tables, chairs and benches were all home-made.On the floor 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 proud.At one end of the room a huge stone fireplace stood radiant in its summer decorations of ferns and grasses and wild-flowers.At the other end a door opened into another room, smaller and richly furnished with relics of former grandeur.
Everything was clean and well kept.Every nook, shelf and corner was decked with flowers and ferns from the canyon.
A strange house it was, full of curious contrasts, but it fitted this quaint child that welcomed me with such gracious courtesy.
