I've trailed you all over
the state."

Jim looked up into the kindly face and his throat worked. "Iron Skull,"
he got out at last, "my--my girl has thrown me down!"

Williams sat down beside him. "Not Penelope?"

Jim nodded and suddenly thrust the crumpled letter into his friend's
hands. In the dawn light Williams read it, cleared his throat, and said:

"God! Poor kids! I take it your folks don't like this Sara, though you
never said so."

Jim put his hand on Iron Skull's knee. "Iron Skull," he said, hoarsely,
"I'd rather see Pen laid away there in the Arizona ranges beside your
Mary than married to him. He's got a yellow streak."

The two sat silent for a time, then Williams said: "This love business
is a queer thing. Some men can care for a dozen different women. But
you're like me. Once and never again. I ain't going to try to comfort
you, partner. I know you've got a sore inside you that'll never heal.
It's hell or heaven when a woman gets a hold on your vitals like
that.--My Mary--she had blue eyes and a little brown freckle on her
nose--I was just your age when she died. And I never was a kid again.
You gotta face forward, partner. Work eighteen hours a day. Marry your
job. You still owe a big debt for your big brain. Go ahead and pay it."

Jim did not answer, but he did not remove his hand from Williams' knee,
and finally Williams laid a hard palm on it. They watched the sun rise.
The rain had ceased. Far to the east where the little camp lay, crimson
spokes shot to the zenith. Suddenly the sun rolled above the desert's
brim and leading straight and level to its scarlet center lay the road
that Jim was building.

"It's a good road," said Jim unevenly. "It's my first one. I'd planned
to show it to her, this summer. And now, she'll never see it--nor any of
my work. Iron Skull, she had a bully mind. Just the little notes she's
sent me, show she got the idea of the Projects. I guess I'm a quitter.
If I can't keep my girl, what's the use of living?"

The old Indian fighter nodded. "Life is that away, partner. You mostly
do what you can and not what you dream. Some day you'll have to marry.
That's where I fell down. These days all us old stock Americans ought to
marry. First you marry your job, Boss Still, then you marry a mother for
your children."

Jim shook his head. "Pen's thrown me down," he said drearily.

Iron Skull waited patiently. At last Jim rose and held out his hand.

"Thank you, Williams,"