Delcasar?"

The girl obediently went up stairs without shaking hands, and a few
minutes later Ramon went away, feeling more of misery and less of
self-confidence than ever before in his life.

He almost wholly neglected his work. Cortez brought him a report that
MacDougall had a new agent, who was working actively in Arriba County, but
he paid no attention to it. His life seemed to have lost purpose and
interest. For the first time he doubted her love. For the first time he
really feared that he would lose her.

Most of his leisure was spent riding or walking about the streets, in the
hope of catching a glimpse of her. He passed her house as often as he
dared, and studied her movements. When he saw her in the distance he felt
an acute thrill of mingled hope and misery. Only once did he meet her
fairly, walking with her brother, and then she either failed to see him or
pretended not to.

One afternoon about five o'clock he left his office and started home in
his car. A storm was piling up rapidly in big black clouds that rose from
behind the eastern mountains like giants peering from ambush. It was
sultry; there were loud peals of thunder and long crooked flashes of
lightning. At this season of late summer the weather staged such a
portentous display almost every afternoon, and it rained heavily in the
mountains; but the showers only reached the thirsty _mesa_ and valley
lands about one day in four.

Ramon drove home slowly, gloomily wondering whether it would rain and
hoping that it would. A Southwesterner is always hoping for rain, and in
his present mood the rush and beat of a storm would have been especially
welcome.

His hopes were soon fulfilled. There was a cold blast of wind, carrying a
few big drops, and then a sudden, drumming downpour that tore up the dust
of the street and swiftly converted it into a sea of mud cut by yellow
rivulets.

As his car roared down the empty street, he glimpsed a woman standing in
the shelter of a big cottonwood tree, cowering against its trunk. A quick
thrill shot through his body. He jammed down the brake so suddenly that
his car skidded and sloughed around. He carefully turned and brought up at
the curb.

She started at sight of him as he ran across the side-walk toward her.

"Come on quick!" he commanded, taking her by the arm, "I'll get you home."
Before she had time to say anything he had her in the car, and they were
driving toward the Roth house. By the time they