"What can I do ?" Frona shrugged her shoulders.

"You'd better pay them the forty cents," she advised, "else they will take off their straps." The man thanked her, but instead of taking heed went on with his haggling.

One of the Indians stepped up and proceeded to unfasten his pack-straps.

The tenderfoot wavered, but just as he was about to give in, the packers jumped the price on him to forty-five cents.

He smiled after a sickly fashion, and nodded his head in token of surrender.