With all her woman heart Kitty had fought against these comparisons--and continued to make them. Everything in her nature that belonged to Granite Mountain--that was, in short, the product of that land--answered to Phil's call, as instinctively as the life of that land calls and answers Its mating calls. Everything that she had acquired in those three years of a more advanced civilization denied and repulsed him. And now her meeting with Patches had stirred the warring forces to renewed activity, and in the distracting turmoil of her thoughts she found herself hating the land she loved, loathing the life that appealed to her with such insistent power, despising those whom she so dearly esteemed and honored, and denying the affection of which she was proud with a true woman's tender pride. Kitty was aroused from her absorption by the shrill boyish yells of her two younger brothers, who, catching sight of their sister from the top of one of the low hills that edge the meadow bottom lands, were charging recklessly down upon her. As the clatter and rumble of those eight flying hoofs drew nearer and nearer, Midnight, too, "came alive," as the cowboys say, and tossed his head and pranced with eager impatience. "Where in the world have you been all the afternoon?" demanded Jimmy, with twelve-year-old authority, as his pony slid to a halt within a foot or two of his sister's horse. And, "We wanted you to go with us, to see our coyote traps," reproved Conny--two years younger than his brother--as his pinto executed a like maneuver on the other side of the excited Midnight. "And where is Jack?" asked the young woman mischievously, as she smilingly welcomed the vigorous lads. "Couldn't he help?" Jack was the other member of the Reid trio of boys--a lusty four-year-old who felt himself equal to any venture that interested his brothers. Jimmy grinned. "Aw, mama coaxed him into the kitchen with something to eat while me and Conny sneaked down to the corral and saddled up and beat it." Big sister's dark eyebrows arched in shocked inquiry, "_Me_ and Conny?" "That is, Conny and I," amended Jimmy, with good-natured tolerance of his sister's whims. "You see, Kitty," put in Conny, "this hero coyote traps pin' ain't just fun. It's business. Dad's promised us three dollars for every scalp, an' we're aimin' to make a stake. We didn't git a blamed thing, to-day, though." Sister's painful and despairing expression was blissfully ignored as Jimmy stealthily flicked the long romal at the end of his bridle reins against Midnight's flank. "Gee!" observed the tickled youngster, as Kitty gave all her attention to restraining the fretting and indignant horse, "ol' Midnight is sure some festive, ain't he?" "I'll race you both to the big gate," challenged Kitty. "For how much?" demanded Jimmy quickly. "You got to give us fifty yards start," declared Conny, leaning forward in his saddle and shortening his reins.