at it with eyes
which still brooded. In her hatband was a bluebird feather; her
fingers rose to it reminiscently. A faint, dying breeze just barely
stirred the drooping branches of the willow; in one place the graceful
pendant leaves merged with their own reflections below, faintly
blurring them with the slightest of ripples. Here, in the sunlight,
was a languid place of dreams; by mellow, magic moonlight what wonder
if there came hither certain of the last remnants and relics of an old
superstitious people, seeking visions? And an old saw hath it, 'What
ye seek for ye shall find.'

Helen looked up; already Howard had passed out of sight; already her
father's two pack horses had followed the rancher's mare beyond the
brushy flank of the hill and Longstreet himself would be out of her
sight in another moment. She turned a last look upon the still pond
and hurried on.

Now again, as upon yesterday and the day before, the desert seemed
without limit about them. The hot sun mounted; the earth sweltered and
baked and blistered. Heat waves shimmered in the distances; the
distances themselves were withdrawn into the veil of ultimate distances
over which the blazing heat lay in what seemed palpable strata;
crunching rock and gravel in the dry water-courses burned through thick
sole-leather; burning particles of sand got into boots and irritated
the skin; humans and horses toiled on, hour after hour, from early
listlessness to weariness and, before noon, to parched misery. Even
Howard, who confessed that he was little used to walking, admitted that
this sort of thing made no great hit with him. During the forenoon he
again offered his mount to Helen; when she sought to demur and hoped to
be persuaded, he suggested a compromise; they would take turns, she,
her father and himself. By noon, when they camped for lunch and a two
hours' rest, all three had ridden.

Barely perceptibly the sweeps about them had altered during the last
hour before midday. Here and there were low hills dotted occasionally
by trees, covered with sparse dry grass. Here, said Howard, were the
outer fringes of the grazing land; his cattle sometimes strayed as far
as this. The spot chosen for nooning was a suspicion less breathlessly
hot; there was a sluggish spring ringed about with wiry green grass and
shaded by a clump of mongrel trees.

Helen ate little and then lay down and slept. Longstreet, his knees
gathered in his arms, his back to