used to gripping men and things and bending them to his will, he felt,
now, the same compulsive prod of mastery. He wanted to tell her that he
loved her and that there was nothing else for her to do but marry him.
And yet he did not obey the prod. Women were fluttery creatures, and
here mere mastery would prove a bungle. He remembered all his hunting
guile, the long patience of shooting meat in famine when a hit or a
miss meant life or death. Truly, though this girl did not yet mean
quite that, nevertheless she meant much to him--more, now, than ever,
as he rode beside her, glancing at her as often as he dared, she in her
corduroy riding-habit, so bravely manlike, yet so essentially and
revealingly woman, smiling, laughing, talking, her eyes sparkling, the
flush of a day of sun and summer breeze warm in her cheeks.

CHAPTER XIII

Another Sunday man and horse and dog roved the Piedmont hills. And
again Daylight and Dede rode together. But this time her surprise at
meeting him was tinctured with suspicion; or rather, her surprise was
of another order. The previous Sunday had been quite accidental, but
his appearing a second time among her favorite haunts hinted of more
than the fortuitous. Daylight was made to feel that she suspected him,
and he, remembering that he had seen a big rock quarry near Blair Park,
stated offhand that he was thinking of buying it. His one-time
investment in a brickyard had put the idea into his head--an idea that
he decided was a good one, for it enabled him to suggest that she ride
along with him to inspect the quarry.

So several hours he spent in her company, in which she was much the
same girl as before, natural, unaffected, lighthearted, smiling and
laughing, a good fellow, talking horses with unflagging enthusiasm,
making friends with the crusty-tempered Wolf, and expressing the desire
to ride Bob, whom she declared she was more in love with than ever. At
this last Daylight demurred. Bob was full of dangerous tricks, and he
wouldn't trust any one on him except his worst enemy.

"You think, because I'm a girl, that I don't know anything about
horses," she flashed back. "But I've been thrown off and bucked off
enough not to be over-confident. And I'm not a fool. I wouldn't get on
a bucking horse. I've learned better. And I'm not afraid of any other
kind. And you say yourself that Bob doesn't buck."

"But you've never seen him cutting up didoes," Daylight said.

"But