nse, followed by the audible
murmur of voices, which it was impossible to localize. Yet the whole
field was so devoid of any suggestion of human life or motion that
it seemed rather as if the vast expanse itself had become suddenly
articulate and intelligible.

"Wot say?"

"Wheel off."

"Whare?"

"In the road."

One of the voices here indicated itself in the direction of the line of
dust, and said, "Comin'," and a man stepped out from the wheat into a
broad and dusty avenue.

With his presence three things became apparent.

First, that the puffs of dust indicated the existence of the invisible
avenue through the unlimited and unfenced field of grain; secondly, that
the stalks of wheat on either side of it were so tall as to actually
hide a passing vehicle; and thirdly, that a vehicle had just passed, had
lost a wheel, and been dragged partly into the grain by its frightened
horse, which a dusty man was trying to restrain and pacify.

The horse, given up to equine hysterics, and evidently convinced that
the ordinary buggy behind him had been changed into some dangerous and
appalling creation, still plunged and kicked violently to rid himself
of it. The man who had stepped out of the depths of the wheat quickly
crossed the road, unhitched the traces, drew back the vehicle, and,
glancing at the traveler's dusty and disordered clothes, said, with curt
sympathy:--

"Spilt, too; but not hurt, eh?"

"No, neither of us. I went over with the buggy when the wheel cramped,
but SHE jumped clear."

He made a gesture indicating the presence of another. The man turned
quickly. There was a second figure, a young girl standing beside the
grain from which he had emerged, embracing a few stalks of wheat with
one arm and a hand in which she still held her parasol, while she
grasped her gathered skirts with the other, and trying to find a secure
foothold for her two neat narrow slippers on a crumbling cake of adobe
above the fathomless dust of the roadway. Her face, although annoyed
and discontented, was pretty, and her light dress and slim figure were
suggestive of a certain superior condition.

The man's manner at once softened with Western courtesy. He swung
his broad-brimmed hat from his head, and bent his body with the
ceremoniousness of the country ball-room. "I reckon the lady had better
come up to the shanty out o' the dust and sun till we kin help you get
these things fixed," he said to the driver. "I'll send round