LITMIR.BIZ

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Seaton is a first-class lawyer. As I said to you last night, if you show some decent spirit, he'd try to clear the matter up for you."

      Nucky's blue eyes were as eager and as wistful as a little child's.

       His thin, mobile lips quivered. "I never thought of such a thing,

       Frank!"

      "Well, you'd better think of it! Now then, you clean up these dishes for me while I attend to the stock. I want to be off in a half hour."

      During the remainder of that very strenuous day, Nucky did not refer again to the matter so near his heart. He was quiet, but no longer sullen, and he was boyishly interested in the wonders of the Canyon. The sun was setting when they at last reached the rim. For an hour Nucky had not spoken. When Allen had turned in the saddle to look at the boy, Nucky had nodded and smiled, then returned to his absorbed watching of the lights and shadows in the Canyon.

      They dismounted at the corral. "Now, old man," said Frank, "I want you to go in and tuck away a big supper, take a hot bath and go to bed. To-morrow we'll ride along the rim just long enough to fight off the worst of the saddle stiffness."

      "All right!" Nucky nodded. "I'm half dead, that's a fact. But I've got to tell the clerk and the bell boy a thing or two before I do anything."

      "Go to it!" Frank laughed, as he followed the mules through the gate.

      Nucky did not open his eyes until nine o'clock the next morning. When he had finished breakfast, he found the guide waiting for him in the lobby.

      "Hello, Frank!" he shouted. "Come on! Let's start!"

      All that day, prowling through the snow after Allen, Nucky might have been any happy boy of fourteen. It was only when Frank again left him at dusk that his face lengthened.

      "Can't I be with you this evening, Frank?" he asked.

      Frank shook his head. "I've got to be with my wife and little girl."

      "But why can't I—" Nucky hesitated as he caught the look in Frank's face. "You'll never forget what I said about women, I suppose!"

      "Why should I forget it?" demanded Allen.

      The sullen note returned to Nucky's voice. "I wouldn't harm 'em!"

      "No, I'll bet you wouldn't!" returned Allen succinctly.

      Nucky turned to stare into the Canyon. It seemed to the guide that it was a full five minutes that the boy gazed into the drifting depths before he turned with a smile that was as ingenuous as it was wistful.

      "Frank, I guess I made an awful dirty fool of myself! I—I can't like 'em, but I'll take your word that lots of 'em are good. And nobody will ever hear me sling mud at 'em again, so help me God—and the Canyon!"

      Frank silently held out his hand and Nucky grasped it. Then the guide said, "You'd better go to bed again as soon as you've eaten your supper. By to-morrow you'll be feeling like a short trip down Bright Angel. Good-night, old top!"

      When Nucky came out of the hotel door the next morning, Frank, with a cavalcade of mules, was waiting for him. But he was not alone. Seated on a small mule was a little girl of five or six.

      "Enoch," said Frank, "this is my daughter, Diana. She is going down the trail with us."

      Nucky gravely doffed his hat, and the little girl laughed, showing two front teeth missing and a charming dimple.

      "You've got red hair!" she cried.

      Nucky grunted, and mounted his mule.

      "Diana will ride directly behind me," said Frank. "You follow her,

       Enoch."

      "Can that kid go all the way to the river?" demanded Nucky.

      "She's been there a good many times," replied Frank, looking proudly at his little daughter.

      She was not an especially pretty child, but had Nucky been a judge of feminine charms he would have realized that Diana gave promise of a beautiful womanhood. Her chestnut hair hung in thick curls on her shoulders. Her eyes were large and a clear hazel. Her skin, though tanned, was peculiarly fine in texture. But the greatest promise of her future beauty lay in a sweetness of expression in eye and lip that was extraordinary in so young a child. For the rest, she was thin and straight and wore a boy's corduroy suit.

      Diana feared the trail no more than Nucky feared MacDougal Street. She was deeply interested in Nucky, turning and twisting constantly in her saddle to look at him.

      "Do you like your mule, Enoch? He's a very nice mule."

      "Yes, but don't turn round or you'll fall."

      "How can I talk if I don't turn round? Do you like little girls?"

      "I don't know any little girls. Turn round, Diana!"

      "But you know me!"

      "I won't know you long if you don't sit still in that saddle, Miss."

      "Do you like me, Enoch?"

      Nucky groaned. "Frank, if Diana don't quit twisting, I'll fall myself, even if she don't!"

      "Don't bother Enoch, daughter!"

      "I'm not bothering Enoch, Daddy. I'm making conversation. I like him, even if he has red hair."

      Nucky sighed, and tried to turn the trend of the small girl's ideas.

      "I'll bet you don't know what kind of stone that is yonder where the giant dripped blood."

      "There isn't any giant's blood!" exclaimed Diana scornfully. "That is just red quartz!"

      "Oh, and what's the layer next to it?" demanded Nucky skeptically.

      "That's black basalt," answered the little girl. Then, leaning far out of the saddle to point to the depths below, "and that—"

      "Frank!" shouted Nucky. "Diana is bound to fall! I just can't stand looking at her."

      This time Frank spoke sternly. "Diana, don't turn to look at Enoch again!" and the little girl obeyed.

      Had Nucky been other than he was, he might have been amused and not a little charmed by Diana's housewifely ways when they made camp that afternoon. She helped to kindle the fire and to unpack the provisions. She lent a hand at arranging the beds and set the table, all with eager docility and intelligence. But Nucky, after doing the chores Frank set him, wandered off to a seat that commanded a wide view of the trail, where he remained in silent contemplation of the wonders before him until called to supper.

      He was silent during the meal, giving no heed to Diana's small attempts at conversation, and wandered early to his blankets. In the morning, however, he was all boy again, even attempting once or twice to tease Diana, in a boy's offhand manner. That small person, however, had become conscious of the fact that Enoch was not interested in her, and she had withdrawn into herself with a pride and self-control that was highly amusing to her father. Nor did she unbend during the day.

      The return trip was made with but one untoward incident. This occurred after they had reached the snow line. Much of the snow had thawed and by late afternoon there was ice on the trail. Frank led the way very gingerly and the mules often stopped of their own accord, while the guide roughened the path for them with the axe. In spite of this care, as they rounded one last upper curve, Diana's mule slipped, and it was only Diana's lightning quickness in dismounting and the mule's skill in throwing himself inward that saved them both.

      Diana did not utter a sound, but Nucky gave a hoarse oath and, before Frank could accomplish it, Nucky had dismounted, had rushed up the trail and stood holding Diana in his lank, boyish arms, while the mule regained his foothold.

      "Now look here, Frank, Diana rides either in your lap or mine!" said

       Nucky shortly, his face twitching.

      Frank raised his eyebrows at the boy's tone. "Set her down, Enoch! We'll all walk to the top. It's only a short

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