"I was so thirsty." Her low tone, endeavoring to be polite enough, contained no note of encouragement.
"Was Gillis your father ?" the man questioned, determined to make her recognize his presence.
"I suppose so; I don't know." "You don't know?
Am I to understand you are actually uncertain whether this man was your father or not ?" "That is about what I said, was n't it?
Not that it is any of your business, so far as I know, Mr.Bob Hampton, but I answered you all right.

He brought me up, and I called him 'dad' about as far back as I can remember, but I don't reckon as he ever told me he was my father.
So you can understand just what you please." "His name was Gillis, was n't it ?" The girl nodded wearily.
"Post-trader at Fort Bethune ?" Again the rumpled head silently acquiesced.
"What is your name ?" "He always called me 'kid,'" she admitted unwillingly, "but I reckon if you have any further occasion for addressing me, you'd better say, 'Miss Gillis.'" Hampton laughed lightly, his reckless humor instantly restored by her perverse manner.
"Heaven preserve me!" he exclaimed good naturedly, "but you are certainly laying it on thick, young lady! However, I believe we might become good friends if we ever have sufficient luck to get out from this hole alive.

Darn if I don't sort of cotton to you, little girl--you've got some sand." For a brief space her truthful, angry eyes rested scornfully upon his face, her lips parted as though trembling with a sharp retort.

Then she deliberately turned her back upon him without uttering a word.
For what may have been the first and only occasion in Mr.Hampton's audacious career, he realized his utter helplessness.

This mere slip of a red-headed girl, this little nameless waif of the frontier, condemned him so completely, and without waste of words, as to leave him weaponless.