ed the mourn of a wolf.

Under the aspens it was silent and lonely and sad. The leaves quivered
without any sound of rustling. Columbine's heart was full of a happiness
that she longed to express somehow, there beside this lonely grave. It
was what she owed the strange man who slept here in the shadows. Grief
abided with her, and always there would be an eternal remorse and
regret. Yet she had loved him. She had been his, all unconsciously. His
life had been terrible, but it had been great. As the hours of quiet
thinking had multiplied, Columbine had grown in her divination of Wade's
meaning. His had been the spirit of man lighting the dark places; his
had been the ruthless hand against all evil, terrible to destroy.

Her father! After all, how closely was she linked to the past! How
closely protected, even in the hours of most helpless despair! Thus she
understood him. Love was the food of life, and hope was its
spirituality, and beauty was its reward to the seeing eye. Wade had
lived these great virtues, even while he had earned a tragic name.

"I will live them. I will have faith and hope and love, for I am his
daughter," she said. A faint, cool breeze strayed through the aspens,
rustling the leaves whisperingly, and the slender columbines, gleaming
pale in the twilight, lifted their sweet faces.

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mysterious Rider, by Zane Grey

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER ***

***** This file should be named 13937.txt or 13937.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/3/9/3/13937/

Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not