Gathered there was a vast crowd of men, and when the stage came in sight, and three persons were seen on top, with the mounted escort hastening after, the yells of welcome began. The roar floated down the valley, and reached the ears of Celeste Seldon, and she muttered in a low tone: "How kind they all are. This is, indeed, a welcome to be proud of, and never can I forget it." "They mean it, miss," said Harding and he felt just pride in his frontier home at the reception, and the manner in which Celeste received it greatly pleased him. On flew the horses, and up the hill they dashed, to at last come to a halt before the hotel. The din was now terrific, for the voices of the horsemen joined in with the miners about the hotel, who, with one accord, drew their revolvers and began to empty them in the air. As there were hundreds of miners, and all were armed with a couple each of revolvers, the rattling of the fusillade may be imagined. Celeste bowed right and left, waving her handkerchief, until Landlord Larry aided her to dismount and led her into the hotel, and the welcome was at an end. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE COUNCIL. Celeste Seldon was not one to put on airs. She had been well reared, was refined, lovable by nature, plucky enough for a man, for she had the heart and will to do and dare anything where duty called, and yet she was as simple as a child by nature. She was deeply touched by the reception she had received, and, in glancing about, when she saw only a wild-looking set of men, rude log cabins, and an air of the far frontier pervading all, she knew that it was just what she must expect to see, and she at once adapted herself to circumstances. She was escorted by Landlord Larry to her cabin, Harding himself bringing her trunk and another miner her saddle and bridle. The appearance of the cabin revealed to her at a glance how much had been done to make her comfortable, and she praised the neat quarters and expressed the greatest satisfaction in her surroundings. When she went over to the hotel to dinner, the whole crowd of miners there rose at her entrance, and every hat was doffed and placed beneath the bench on which the man sat, for hat-racks were not one of the luxuries of the last Chance Hotel, and a miner would as soon have thought of parting with his pistols as his head-covering. At his own table, where sat, besides himself, Doctor Dick and Harding, Landlord Larry placed Celeste Seldon, and she was given the best the house afforded, and expressed herself as being treated far more kindly than she had had the slightest anticipation of. The meal concluded, Celeste said that she would like to consult with the three she regarded as her immediate protectors, the Landlord, Doctor Dick, and Harding. So the three met her in the landlord's private office, and Celeste at once said: