the creek, around by the side of that hill. That's the Gimpke home
stuck in there where you'd never think of looking for a house from up
here. They can see anybody that goes up this lonely hill and nobody can
see them. If I was gunning for Gimpkes, I'd lie in wait right here,"
Thaine declared.

"Maybe, if the Gimpkes were gunning for you, they could pick you off as
you went innocently up this Kyber Pass and you'd never know what hit you
nor live to tell the tale; and they so snugly out of sight nobody but you
would ever have sighted them," Leigh replied. "But let's hurry on. It will
be cooler on the open prairie than down there along the creek trail. And
if we are storm-stayed, we are storm-stayed, that's all."

"You are the comfortablest girl a fellow could have, Leighlie. You aren't
a bit scared of storms like--"

"Yes, like Jo. I can't help it. I never was much of a 'fraid cat, but I
don't mind admitting I am fonder of water in lakes and rivers and
water-color drawings than thumping down on my head from the little end of
a cyclone funnel."

The air grew cooler in their homeward ride, while they followed the same
old Sunflower Trail that Asher and Virginia Aydelot had followed one
September day a quarter of a century before. And, for some reason, they
did not stop to question, neither was eager to reach the end of the trail
today.

As they came to a crest of the prairie looking down a long verdant slope
toward what was now a woodsy draw, Thaine said, "Leigh, my mother was lost
here somewhere once and Doctor Carey found her. Maybe Doctor Carey is the
man to help you now."

"Oh, Thaine, I believe I could ask Doctor Carey for anything. You are so
good to think of him," Leigh exclaimed. "I knew you'd help me out."

"Yes, I'm good. That's my trade," Thaine replied. "And I'm pretty brave to
offer advice, too. But if you want to talk any about courage, mine's a
different brand from yours. I may be a soldier myself some day. Brother
Aydelot of the Sunflower Ranch, trustee of the Grass River M. E. Church,
fit, bled, and died in the Civil War and was not quite my age now when he
came out all battle-scoured and gory. I always said I'd be a soldier like
my popper. But I'd fall in a dead faint before that alfalfa and mortgage
business you face like a hero. It's getting cooler. See, the storm didn't
get this side of the purple notches; it stayed over there with Pryor
Gaines and Prince Quippi."

They rode awhile in silence