The room, a large one for a mountain cabin, was warm and clean; some logs burned brightly on the hearth; a table set for supper was placed within the radius of that glow and a man was bending over a stove at one side of the fireplace, while two women, who had evidently been seated on the other side of the fire, rose and stood smiling a welcome.  The air was full of appetizing odors mingled with the fragrance of coffee.

As they entered the man turned with a quick movement.  He was an odd-looking creature, brown as a nut, with glinting, changing, glancing eyes which can see what seem to be immeasurable distances to those possessed of ordinary sight.  He had a curiously crooked face, one eye was higher than the other and his nose was not in the middle, but set on one side; its sharp, inquisitive point almost at right angles with the bridge.  He had the wide, mobile mouth of the born comedian, and his chin was as much to the right as his nose was to the left.  He was extremely light and slender in figure and his movements were like quicksilver.  His hair was black and straight and long, especially over the ears, and he had long, slender, delicate hands, which one noticed at once for their uncommon flexibility and deftness.

“Supper ready?” asked Gallito, without other greeting.

“Now,” replied the other man.  He began lifting the food he had been preparing from the pans, arranging it on various dishes and slipping them upon the table with a rapidity and noiselessness which suggested sleight of hand.

Gallito gave a brief nod and advanced toward the two women, bowing low with Spanish courtesy.  A smile, a blending of pleasure and amusement, softened his grim mouth and keen eyes as he shook hands with one, whom he introduced to his daughter as Mrs. Nitschkan.  About medium height, she was a powerfully built creature, her open flannel shirt disclosing the great muscles of her neck and chest.  Rings of short, curly brown hair covered her round head; and small, twinkling blue eyes shone oddly bright in her deeply tanned face, while her frequent smile displayed small, milk-white teeth.  A short, weather-stained skirt showed her miner’s boots and a man’s coat was thrown over her shoulders.  A bold, freebooting Amazon she appeared, standing there in the fire-glow, and one to whom hardihood was a birth-right.

The other woman towered above her and even above Gallito.  She was a colossal Venus, with a face pink and white as a may-blossom.  Tremulous smiles played about her soft, babyish mouth and a joyous excitement shone in her wide, blue eyes.  Upon her head was a small, lop-sided bonnet, from which depended a rusty crepe veil of which she seemed inordinately conscious, and at the throat of her black gown was a large, pink bow.