e was her avowed and accepted lover. She
gloried in his physical charm and power. She took a woman's pride in his
devotion, and maybe, most of all, in her sovereignty over him; she
realized more clearly than any one else, how completely he was her
plastic material. A mighty engine, indeed, he had need of a skilful
engineer. A splendid steed of rarest power and gift, his power and gift
were useless, even worse, without the deft control of the rider, who
should become in a sense his soul, as the captain is the soul of a great
ship. And Belle had come to know that the best work she could ever hope
to do was as the captain of this ship.

And what was to hinder? Belle knew; her soft brown eyes could see much
farther through the stone wall than could his piercing eyes of blue. She
estimated at its true potency the passion that now threatened to wreck
his career. A lover of horses always, an absolute worshipper of Blazing
Star, he was barely held in restraint by his promises and fears of
Church discipline, and Belle foresaw a time when his wild, impulsive
nature would break out. He would surely be swept away by the wild
currents of which the horse race is the vortex; and, having once lost
hold, he would go the pace, break all rules, and end...? She knew, but
dared not say.

Winter would soon be on them and, with that, the end of their happy
rides together on the plains. The different life enforced would put them
more apart--cut off these saddle _tete-a-tetes_, and with all the
happenings, past or future, in her mind Belle was ready for a woman's
game; the time had come to play it. That tightening of the cinch was not
by chance.

They rode a race for a mile and Jim gallantly held back his mount so
that she should keep the lead. They passed a slough along whose edge the
gentians still were blue; she wanted some, and when he brought them she
patted his hand, and gave the flowers an honoured place. Suddenly a
coyote appeared and she raced with him on its trail till it was lost to
view. She called forth all her horsemanship to match his, and make him
feel their perfect harmony; and as they rode side by side, she laid her
hand on his arm to call attention to some creature of the plains when at
other times she would merely have spoken. It thrilled and stirred him,
so he tried to follow up this willingness for touch. But she swung away
each time. Then at a later keep-your-distance hint she gaily held out a
hand to him and teased hi