You won't lose him again," he answered, pushing into the hinterland
of his mind the reflection that a man cannot change the color of his
thinking in an hour.

"We thought he'd gone away for good. I'm so glad he hasn't."

"No. He's been here all the time, but he's been obeying the orders of a
man who told him he had no business to be alive."

He looked at her with deep, inscrutable eyes. As a boy he had been
shy but impulsive. The fires of discipline had given him remarkable
self-restraint. She could not tell he was finding in her face the quality
to inspire in a painter a great picture, the expression of that brave
young faith which made her a touchstone to find the gold in his soul.

Yet in his gravity was something that disturbed her blood. Was she
fanning to flame banked fires better dormant?

She felt a compunction for what she had done. Maybe she had been
unwomanly. It is a penalty impulsive people have to pay that later they
must consider whether they have been bold and presumptuous. Her spirits
began to droop when she should logically have been celebrating her
success.

But Dave walked on mountain-tops tipped with mellow gold. He threw off
the weight that had oppressed his spirits for years and was for the hour
a boy again. She had exorcised the gloom in which he walked. He looked
down on a magnificent flaming desert, and it was good. To-day was his.
To-morrow was his. All the to-morrows of the world were in his hand. He
refused to analyze the causes of his joy. It was enough that beside him
moved with charming diffidence the woman of his dreams, that with her
soft hands she had torn down the barrier between them.

"And now I don't know whether I've done right," she said ruefully. "Dad
warned me I'd better be careful. But of course I always know best. I
'rush in.'"

"You've done me a million dollars' worth of good. I needed some good
friend to tell me just what you have. Please don't regret it."

"Well, I won't." She added, in a hesitant murmur, "You
won't--misunderstand?"

His look turned aside the long-lashed eyes and brought a faint flush of
pink to her cheeks.

"No, I'll not do that," he said.

CHAPTER XXXII

DAVE BECOMES AN OFFICE MAN

From Graham came a wire a week after the return of the oil expert to
Denver. It read:

Report satisfactory. Can you come at once and arrange with me plan of
organization?

Sanders was on the next train. He was still much needed at Malapi to look
a