not attempt to formulate
the vision in words. His answer was obvious and had nothing to do with
gurgling brooks, or with ferns and shadowed pools.

"It sure ain't, Miss. Might you be looking for somebody in particular?"

"No-o--I'm just here. It would be a poor place to look for anybody,
wouldn't it?"

"Sure would." Young Tom found his courage and smiled, and the girl
looked at him again, as though she liked that white-toothed smile of
Tom's.

"Well, I started out to find the jumping-off place, and this sounded
like it on the railroad map. I guess it's It, all right; there's
nothing to do but jump."

Young Tom pulled his black eyebrows together, studying her. By her
speech she was human; therefore, in spite of her beauty that dazzled
him, she was not to be feared.

"You mean you ain't got any particular place to go from here?"

The girl tilted her head and stared up the mountain's steep,
pine-covered slope. She swung her head a little and looked at Tom. She
smiled bravely still, but he thought her eyes looked sorry for
something.

"Is there any particular place to go from here?" she asked him
wistfully, keeping the smile on her lips as the world had taught her
to do.

"Not unless you went back."

She shook her head. "No," she said, firmly, "I'll climb that mountain
and jump off the top before I'll go back."

Young Tom felt that she spoke in sober earnest in spite of her smile;
which was strange. He had seen men smile in deadly earnest,--his dad
had smiled when he reached for his gun to kill Buck Sanderson. But
women cried.

"Don't you know anybody at all, around here?"

"Not a soul--except you, and I don't know whether your name is Tom or
Bill."

"My name's Tom--Tom Lorrigan. Say! If you ain't got any place to
go--why--I've got a ranch and about twenty-five hundred head of cattle
and some horses. If you didn't mind marrying me, I could take you out
there and give yuh a home. I'd be plumb good to you, if you're willing
to take a chance."

The girl stood back and looked him over. Tall as Tom was she came
almost to his chin. He saw her eyes darken like the sky at dusk, and
it seemed to him quite possible that stars could shine in them.

"You'd be taking as great a chance as I would. I haven't any ranch or
any cattle, or anything at all but myself and two trunks full of
clothes and some things in my life I want to forget. And I have
sixty cents in my purse. I can't cook anything except to toast
mars