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“That night when I got back to the hotel I found a long-distance call from old Henry Harman. He had wired me here at the Agency, and, finding I was in Washington, he had called me from New York. He didn’t tell me much over the ‘phone, except that he wanted to see me at once on a matter of importance. My work was about finished, so I took the train in the morning and went straight to his office. When I arrived I found the old fellow badly rattled. There is a certain kind of worry which comes from handling affairs of importance. Men like Henry Harman thrive upon it; but there’s another kind which searches out the joints in their coats of mail and makes women of them. That’s what Henry was suffering from.

“‘Oh, Doc, I’m in an awful hole!’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re the only man who can pull me out. It’s about Alicia and that damned savage of yours.’

“‘I knew that was it,’ said I.

“‘If you’ve heard about it clear out there,’ Harman declared, with a catch in his voice, ‘it’s even worse than I thought.’ He strode up and down his office for a few moments; then he sank heavily into his chair and commenced to pound his mahogany desk, declaring, angrily:

“‘I won’t be defied by my own flesh and blood! I won’t! That’s all there is to it. I’m master of my own family. Why, the thing’s fantastic, absurd, and yet it’s terrible! Heavens! I can’t believe it!’

“‘Have you talked with Alicia?’

“‘Not with her, to her. She’s like a mule. I never saw such a will in a woman. I–I’ve fought her until I’m weak. Where she got her temper I don’t know.’ He collapsed feebly and I was forced to smile, for there’s only one thing stubborn enough to overcome a Harman’s resistance, and that is a Harman’s desire.

“‘Then it isn’t a girlish whim?’ I ventured.

“‘Whim! Look at me!’ He held out his trembling hands. ‘She’s licked me, Doc. She’s going to marry that–that–‘ He choked and muttered, unintelligibly: ‘I’ve reasoned, I’ve pleaded, I’ve commanded. She merely smiles and shrugs and says I’m probably right, in the abstract. Then she informs me that abstract problems go to pieces once in a while. She says this–this–Galloping Moose, this yelping ghost-dancer of yours, is the only real man she ever met.’

“‘What does he have to say?’

“‘Humph!’ grunted Harman. ‘I offered to buy him off, but he threatened to serve me up with dumplings and wear my scalp in his belt. Such insolence! Alicia wouldn’t speak to me for a week.’

“‘You made a mistake there,’ said I. ‘Running Elk is a Sioux. As for Alicia, she’s thoroughly spoiled. She’s never been denied any single thing in all her life, and she has your disposition. It’s a difficult situation.’

“‘Difficult! It’s scandalous–hideous!’

“‘How old is Alicia?’

“‘Nineteen. Oh, I’ve worn out that argument! She says she’ll wait. You know she has her own money, from her mother.’

“‘Does Running Elk come to your house?’

“At this my old friend roared so fiercely that I hastened to say: ‘I’ll see the boy at once. I have more influence with him than anybody else.’

“‘I hope you can show him how impossible, how criminal, it is to ruin my girl’s life.’ Harman said this seriously. ‘Yes, and mine, too, for that matter. Suppose the yellow newspapers got hold of this!’ He shuddered. ‘Doc, I love that girl so well that I’d kill her with my own hands rather than see her disgraced, ridiculed–‘

“‘Tut, tut!’ said I. ‘That’s pride–just plain, selfish pride.’

“‘I don’t care a damn what it is, I’d do it. I earned my way in the world, but she’s got blue blood in her and she was born to a position; she goes everywhere. When she comes out she’ll be able to marry into the best circles in America. She could marry a duke, if she wanted to. I’d buy her one if she said the word. Naturally, I can’t stand for this dirty, low-browed Injun.’