ngth the old dreams had come back--the cabin by the
river, the garden seeds to be planted, and now added to them was the
gold they were to find. She hearkened with unresponsive apathy. The
repugnance to this mutually shared future which had once made her
recoil from it was a trivial thing to the abhorrence of it that was now
hers. Dislikes had become loathings, a girl's whims, a woman's
passions. As David babbled on she kept her eyes averted, for she knew
that in them her final withdrawal shone coldly. Her thoughts kept
reverting to the scene in the cleft, and when she tore them from it and
forced them back on him, her conscience awoke and gnawed. She could no
more tell this man, returning to life and love of her, than she could
kill him as he lay there defenseless and trusting.

At supper they measured out the water, half a cup for each. There
still remained a few inches in the cask. This was to be hoarded
against the next day. If Courant on his night journey could not strike
the upper trail and a spring they would have to retrace their steps,
and by this route, with the animals exhausted and their own strength
diminished, the first water was a twelve hours' march off. Susan and
Courant were silent, avoiding each other's eyes, torpid to the outward
observation. But the old man was unusually garrulous, evidently
attempting to raise their lowered spirits. He had much to say about
California and the gold there, speculated on their chances of fortune,
and then carried his speculations on to the joys of wealth and a future
in which Susan was to say with the Biblical millionaire, "Now soul take
thine ease." She rewarded him with a quick smile, then tipped her cup
till the bottom faced the sky, and let the last drop run into her mouth.

The night was falling when Courant rode out. She passed him as he was
mounting, the canteen strapped to the back of his saddle. "Good-by,
and good luck," she said in a low voice as she brushed by. His
"good-by" came back to her instilled with a new meaning. The reserve
between them was gone. Separated as the poles, they had suddenly
entered within the circle of an intimacy that had snapped round them
and shut them in. Her surroundings fell into far perspective, losing
their menace. She did not care where she was or how she fared. An
indifference to all that had seemed unbearable, uplifted her. It was
like an emergence from cramped confines to wide, inspiring spaces. He