"I think I'll call the guards." "Call the court physician and make sure--" "Pshaw! I'm not hurt." Ignoring his extended hand, she scrambled to her feet and brushed herself again. Evidently the queenly anger was short-lived, for she was beaming again, and in a tone that was boyishly intimate she explained: "I'd made three dandy jumps and was going higher each time, but the sight of you upset me. Think of being upset by a perfectly strange man. Shows lack of social training, doesn't it? It's a wonder I didn't break a skee." Pierce glanced apprehensively at the bluff overhead. "Hadn't we better move out of the way?" he inquired. "If the royal family comes dropping in, we'll be ironed out like a couple of handkerchiefs. I don't want to feel the divine right of the king, or his left, either." "There isn't any king-nor any royal family. I'm just the Queen of Pretend." "You're skee-jumping, alone? Is that what you mean?" The girl nodded. "Isn't that a dangerous way to amuse self? I thought skees were--tricky." "Have you ever ridden them?" the girl inquired, quickly. "Never." "You don't know what fun is. Here--" The speaker stooped and detached her feet from the straps. "Just have a go at it." Pierce protested, but she insisted in a business-like way. "They're long ones--too long for me. They'll just suit you." "Really, I don't care to--" "Oh yes, you do. You must." "You'll be sorry," Pierce solemnly warned her. "When my feet glance off and leave me sticking up in the snow to starve, you'll--Say! I can think of a lot of things I want to do, but I don't seem to find skee-jumping on the list." "You needn't jump right away." Determination was in the girl's tone; there was a dancing light of malice in her eyes. "You can practise a bit. Remember, you laughed at me." "Nothing of the sort. I was amazed, not amused. I thought I'd flushed a very magnificent pheasant with blue-and-white stripes, and I was afraid it was going to fly away before I got a good look at it. Now, then--" He slowly finished buckling the runners to his feet and looked up interrogatively. "What are your Majesty's orders?" "Walk around. Slide down the hill." "What on?" The girl smothered a laugh and waved him away. She looked on while he set off with more or less caution. When he managed to maintain an upright position despite the antics of his skees her face expressed genuine disappointment. "It's not so hard as I thought it would be," he soon announced, triumphantly. "A little awkward at first, but--" he cast an eye up at the bank. "You never know what you can do until you try." "You've been skeeing before," she accused him, reproachfully. "Never." "Then you pick it up wonderfully. Try a jump." Her mocking invitation spurred him to make the effort, so he removed the skees and waded a short distance up the hill. When he had secured his feet in position for a second time he called down: "I'm going to let go and trust to Providence. Look out."