The other men on the verandah had come around, and they smiled more broadly than the cowpuncher. It was easy to see that they were not particularly favorable toward Nevil Steyne. It was as Dan had said; he lived near the Reservation, and, well, these men were frontiersmen who knew the ways of the country in which they lived. Nevil saw the smiling faces and checked his anger. He laughed instead. "Well," he said, "since you set such store by my opinions I confess I had no reason to suspect any disturbance, and, to illustrate my faith in the Indians' peaceful condition, I am going home at noon, and to-morrow intend to cut a load or two of wood on the river." Dan had no more to say. He could have said something but refrained, and the rest of the men turned to watch the white smoke in the distance. Decidedly Steyne had scored a point and should have been content; but he wasn't. "I suppose you fellows think a white man can't live near Indians without 'taking the blanket,'" he pursued with a sneer. There was a brief silence. Then Dan answered him slowly. "Jest depends on the man, I guess." There was a nasty tone in the cowpuncher's voice and trouble seemed imminent, but it was fortunately nipped in the bud by Jack McCabe. "Hello!" the butcher exclaimed excitedly, "there's a feller pushin' his plug as tho' them Injuns was on his heels. Say, it's Seth o' White River Farm, and by the gait he's travelin', I'd gamble, Nevil, you don't cut that wood to-morrow. Seth don't usually ride hard." The whole attention on the verandah was centred on Seth, who was riding toward the hotel from across the track as hard as his horse could lay foot to the ground. In a few moments he drew up at the tie-post and flung off his horse. And a chorus of inquiry greeted him from the bystanders. The newcomer raised an undisturbed face to them, and his words came without any of the excitement that the pace he had ridden in at had suggested. "The Injuns are out," he said, and bent down to feel his horse's legs. They seemed to be of most interest to him at the moment.