of the man in his eyes, and dreamed that she feared this and fled.
But after mad flight through the windings of an interminable corridor
she awoke to look squarely into his eyes, to cower instinctively under
his touch on her arm. Her waking thought took the thread of the dream,
her flight had been vain: he was there, and his voice throbbed fatefully
within a secret chamber of her mind, even though his words rang little
of portent.

"We are coming to the supper station."

She hastened to freshen herself with cold water, and they were presently
eating a hasty meal at a crowded table. Then they were out side by side
to pace the platform briskly.

There was green about the station, where water had taught the desert to
relent, but beyond this oasis the sand sea stretched far and flat to
murky foothills. Above these they could see a range of sharp-peaked
mountains that still caught the sunlight, some crystal white with snow,
others muffled by clouds turned to iris-hued scarfs of filmiest gauze.

"El Dorado is beyond those hills," said the youth fervently.

"It looks accessible from here," she answered, "but----"

"You're warning me again. You're afraid I'll be discouraged by the
hills."

"Not discouraged, but there are resting places on the way. They hold the
bulk of the pilgrims, I fear."

"I shall go on; not even you could stop me."

She caught a glint in his fierce young eyes that she thought he must be
unconscious of.

"I? Oh, I shall spur you--if you need spurring."

"I know; I'm only beginning to realize how much I owe you; I mean to
repay you, though."

There was an intimation of remoteness in his tone, as if he saw himself
removed from her, mounting solitary to his dream city, a free-necked,
well-weaponed pilgrim, sufficient unto himself. It was as if he had put
distance between them the moment he crossed the threshold of the world.
She drew a full breath. It came to her, as the upflashing of some
submerged memory, that all his frank adoration of her had been quite
impersonal. He had regarded her as a bit of line and color. It was
amazing to remember that he had made no effort to know her, save with
his eyes. She divined that she had stopped short of being human to him,
while he to her had been, more than anything else, a human creature of
freshness and surprises. Whatever difficulties might be in the way of an
easy friendliness between them, they would not be of his own making. She
was sure she felt a