occurred in the dairy-house again,
Annixter, pretending to look over the new cheese press, asking about
details of her work. When this had happened on that previous occasion,
ending with Annixter's attempt to kiss her, Hilma had been talkative
enough, chattering on from one subject to another, never at a loss for a
theme. But this last time was a veritable ordeal. No sooner had
Annixter appeared than her heart leaped and quivered like that of the
hound-harried doe. Her speech failed her. Throughout the whole brief
interview she had been miserably tongue-tied, stammering monosyllables,
confused, horribly awkward, and when Annixter had gone away, she had
fled to her little room, and bolting the door, had flung herself face
downward on the bed and wept as though her heart were breaking, she did
not know why.

That Annixter had been overwhelmed with business all through the winter
was an inexpressible relief to Hilma. His affairs took him away from the
ranch continually. He was absent sometimes for weeks, making trips
to San Francisco, or to Sacramento, or to Bonneville. Perhaps he was
forgetting her, overlooking her; and while, at first, she told herself
that she asked nothing better, the idea of it began to occupy her mind.
She began to wonder if it was really so.

She knew his trouble. Everybody did. The news of the sudden forward
movement of the Railroad's forces, inaugurating the campaign, had flared
white-hot and blazing all over the country side. To Hilma's notion,
Annixter's attitude was heroic beyond all expression. His courage in
facing the Railroad, as he had faced Delaney in the barn, seemed to her
the pitch of sublimity. She refused to see any auxiliaries aiding him in
his fight. To her imagination, the great League, which all the ranchers
were joining, was a mere form. Single-handed, Annixter fronted the
monster. But for him the corporation would gobble Quien Sabe, as a
whale would a minnow. He was a hero who stood between them all and
destruction. He was a protector of her family. He was her champion.
She began to mention him in her prayers every night, adding a further
petition to the effect that he would become a good man, and that he
should not swear so much, and that he should never meet Delaney again.

However, as Hilma still debated the idea of bathing her feet in the
creek, a train did actually thunder past overhead--the regular evening
Overland,--the through express, that never stopped between Baker