Page:BM Bower - Her Prairie Knight.djvu/40

 "I'll act a perfect brute," he offered eagerly, "if that will make you love me."

"It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque."

Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee—or, perhaps, he was too much in earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish.

"Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?"

"I'm afraid not," he owned. "I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in the matter of brands."

"Yes," agreed Beatrice, "I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle Bar—like this." With a sharp-pointed bit of rock she drew a more or less exact diagram in the yellow soil. "There are ever so many different brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too—a Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned 38