Nan flamed at the information. She disliked Pardaloe
anyway, not for any reason she could assign beyond the fact that he
had once been a chum of Gale's. But she was too high-spirited to
dispute with him, and returned to the house pink with indignation.
Going straight to her uncle, she protested against such tyranny. Duke
was insensible alike to her pleas and her threats.

But next morning Nan was up at three o'clock. She made her way into
the barn before a soul was stirring, and at daybreak was well on her
way to Sleepy Cat. She telephoned to de Spain's office from the
hospital and went to breakfast. De Spain joined her before she had
finished, and when they left the dining-room she explained why she had
disappointed him the day before. He heard the story with misgivings.

"I'll tell you how it looks to me, Nan," he said when she had done.
"You are like a person that's being bound tighter every day by
invisible cords. You don't see them because you are fearless. You are
too fearless, Nan," he added, with apprehension reflected in the
expression of his face. "I'll tell you what I wish you'd do, and I say
it knowing you won't do it," he concluded.

She made light of his fears, twisting his right hand till it was
helpless in her two hands and laughing at him. "How do you know I
won't do it?"

"Because I've asked you before. This is it: marry me, now, here,
to-day, and don't take any more chances out there."

"But, Henry," protested Nan, "I can't marry you now and just run away
from poor Uncle Duke. If you will just be patient, I'll bring him
around to our side."

"Never, Nan."

"Don't be so sure. I know him better than you do, and when he comes
for anybody, he comes all at once. Why, it's funny, Henry. Now that
I'm picking up courage, you're losing it!"

He shook his head. "I don't like the way things are going."

"Dearie," she urged, "should I be any safer at home if I were your
wife, than I am as your sweetheart. I don't want to start a horrible
family war by running away, and that is just what I certainly should
do."

De Spain was unconvinced. But apprehension is short-lived in young
hearts. The sun shone, the sky spread a speckless blue over desert
and mountain, the day was for them together. They did not promise
all of it to themselves at once--they filched its sweetness bit
by bit, moment by moment, and hour by hour, declaring to each other
they must part, and dulling the pain of parting with the anodyn