Again the rumpled head silently acquiesced.

"What is your name?"

"He always called me 'kid,'" she admitted unwillingly, "but I reckon if
you have any further occasion for addressing me, you'd better say,
'Miss Gillis.'"

Hampton laughed lightly, his reckless humor instantly restored by her
perverse manner.

"Heaven preserve me!" he exclaimed good naturedly, "but you are
certainly laying it on thick, young lady! However, I believe we might
become good friends if we ever have sufficient luck to get out from
this hole alive. Darn if I don't sort of cotton to you, little
girl--you've got some sand."

For a brief space her truthful, angry eyes rested scornfully upon his
face, her lips parted as though trembling with a sharp retort. Then
she deliberately turned her back upon him without uttering a word.

For what may have been the first and only occasion in Mr. Hampton's
audacious career, he realized his utter helplessness. This mere slip
of a red-headed girl, this little nameless waif of the frontier,
condemned him so completely, and without waste of words, as to leave
him weaponless. Not that he greatly cared; oh, no! still, it was an
entirely new experience; the arrow went deeper than he would have
willingly admitted. Men of middle age, gray hairs already commencing
to shade their temples, are not apt to enjoy being openly despised by