Streeter seemed to be satisfied. "You'll find him a very accommodating gentleman." "So I hear," said Curtis, and some subtle inflection in his tone caused Streeter to turn towards him again. "What did I understand your name was?" "Curtis." "Where from?" "San Francisco." "Oh yes. I think I heard Sennett speak of you. Those biscuit are mighty good. I'll take another. Couldn't persuade you to stay here, could I?" He turned to Jennie. Jennie laughed. "I'm afraid not--it's too lonesome." Cal seized the chance to say: "It ain't so lonesome as it looks now. We're a lively lot here sometimes." Streeter gave him a glance which stopped him. "Cal, you take Hosy and go over to the camp and tell the boys to hustle in two hundred steers. I want to get 'em passed on to-morrow afternoon, or next day sure." Calvin's face fell. "I don't think I need to go. Hosy can carry the orders just as well as me," he said, boyishly sullen. "I want _you_ to go!" was the stern answer, and it was plain that Streeter was commander even of his reckless son. As he rose from the table, Calvin said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "I'll be here to breakfast all right, and I'll see that you get over to the agency." Streeter the elder upon reflection considered that his guests had not sufficiently accounted for themselves, and, after Calvin left, again turned a penetrating glance on Curtis, saying, in a peculiar way, "Where did you say you were from?" "San Francisco," replied Curtis, promptly, and cut in ahead with a question of his own. "You seem to be well supplied with munitions of war. Do you need all those guns now?" "Need every shell. We're going to oust these devils pretty soon, and they know it, and they're ugly." "What do you mean by ousting 'em?" "We're pushing a bill to have 'em removed." "Where to?" "Oh, to the Red River reservation, or the Powder Valley; we're not particular, so that we get rid of 'em." Jennie tingled with indignation as Streeter outlined the plans of the settlers and told of his friction with the redmen, but Curtis remained calm and smiling. "You'll miss their market for your beef, won't you?" "Oh, that's a small item in comparison with the extra range we'll get," and thereupon he entered upon a long statement of what the government ought to do. Jennie rose wearily, and the old man was all attention. "I suppose you are tired and would like to go to bed?" "We are rather limp," confessed Curtis, glad to escape the searching cross-examination which he knew would follow Jennie's retirement. When they were alone the two young people looked at each other in silence, Jennie with big, horrified eyes, Curtis with an amused comprehension of his sister's feeling. "Isn't he a pirate? He doesn't know it, but his state of mind makes him indictable for murder on the high seas." "George, I don't like this. We are going to have trouble if this old man and his like are not put off this reservation."