The Plow-Woman

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	In the Furrow	[3]
II.	A Trip and Trouble Ahead	[17]
III.	Dallas Makes a Friend	[30]
IV.	Misunderstandings	[41]
V.	The Despised	[52]
VI.	From Dodge City	[62]
VII.	Out of the Sky	[76]
VIII.	Before the Warped Door	[86]
IX.	A Hand in the Fun	[96]
X.	An Appeal to Headquarters	[106]
XI.	A Little Strategy	[118]
XII.	A Confession	[129]
XIII.	A Proposal and a Promise	[134]
XIV.	Another Promise	[145]
XV.	Necessity	[151]
XVI.	Back from the Winter Camp	[169]
XVII.	The Awakening	[178]
XVIII.	The Smoking Mountain	[191]
XIX.	Al Braden of Sioux Falls	[200]
XX.	A Charge	[210]
XXI.	A Meeting by the Ford	[216]
XXII.	A First Warning	[223]
XXIII.	And What Followed It	[228]
XXIV.	The Spirit of the Frontier	[245]
XXV.	The Inquiry	[254]
XXVI.	Backsliding	[264]
XXVII.	Simon Plays a Part	[270]
XXVIII.	A Change in Plan	[277]
XXIX.	Lounsbury's Return	[284]
XXX.	The Tryst	[297]
XXXI.	By the Light of a Match	[303]
XXXII.	The Eve of Other Things	[309]
XXXIII.	The End of a Dream	[312]
XXXIV.	Fire and Escape	[318]
XXXV.	The Last Warning	[325]
XXXVI.	Some Unexpected Discoveries	[330]
XXXVII.	The Flight to Murphy's Throat	[335]
XXXVIII.	Fraser Hears a Call	[342]
XXXIX.	Standing at Bay	[345]
XL.	Some Endings and Beginnings	[351]
XLI.	Taps	[361]

CHAPTER I

IN THE FURROW

The coulée was a long, scarlet gash in the brown level of the Dakota prairie, for the sumach, dyed by the frosts of the early autumn, covered its sides like a cloth whose upper folds were thrown far over the brinks of the winding ravine and, southward, half-way to the new cottonwood shack of the Lancasters. Near it, a dark band against the flaming shrub, stretched the plowed strip, narrow, but widening with each slow circuit of the team as the virgin, grass-grown land was turned by the mould-board to prepare for the corn-planting of the coming spring.