An Apache Princess

One moment her big eyes clouded, but unflinchingly they met his gaze.

Then, something in the stern scrutiny of her aunt's regard stirred all

that was mutinous within her; yet there was an irrepressible twitching

about the corners of the rosy mouth, a twinkle about the big brown

eyes that should have given them pause, even as she demurely answered: "Yes."

"When?" demanded the soldier, his muscular hand clutching ominously at

the wooden rail; his jaw setting squarely. "When--and where?"

But now the merriment with which she had begun changed slowly at sight

of the repressed fury in his rugged Gaelic face. She, too, was

trembling as she answered: "Just after recall--down at the pool."

For an instant he stood glaring, incredulous. "At the pool! You! My

bairnie!" Then, with sudden outburst of passionate wrath, "Go to your

room!" said he.

"But listen--father, dear," she began, imploringly. For answer he

seized her slender arm in almost brutal grasp and fairly hurled her

within the doorway. "Not a word!" he ground between his clinched

teeth. "Go instantly!" Then, slamming the door upon her, he whirled

about as though to seek his sister's face, and saw beyond her,

rounding the corner of the northwest set of quarters, coming in from

the mesa roadway at the back, the tall, white figure of the missing

man.

Another moment and Lieutenant Blakely, in the front room of his

quarters, looking pale and strange, was being pounced upon with eager

questioning by Duane, his junior, when the wooden steps and veranda

creaked under a quick, heavy, ominous tread, and, with livid face and

clinching hands, the troop commander came striding in.

"Mr. Blakely," said he, his voice deep with wrath and tremulous with

passion, "I told you three days ago my daughter and you must not meet,

and--you know why! To-day you lured her to a rendezvous outside the

post--"

"Captain Wren!"

"Don't lie! I say you lured her, for my lass would never have met

you--"

"You shall unsay it, sir," was Blakely's instant rejoinder. "Are you

mad--or what? I never set eyes on your daughter to-day--until a moment

ago."

And then the voice of young Duane was uplifted, shouting for help.

With a crash, distinctly heard out on the parade, Wren had struck his

junior down.