old her that
all was well with Neale, and that sooner or later he would return to
her.

In Allie love had worked magic. It had freed her from a horrible black
memory. She had been alone; she had wanted to die so as to forget those
awful yells and screams--the murder--the blood--the terror and the
anguish; she had nothing to want to live for; she had almost hated those
two kind men who tried so hard to make her forget. Then suddenly, she
never quite remembered when, she had seen Neale with different eyes. A
few words, a touch, a gift, and a pledge--and life had been transformed
for Allie Lee. Like a flower blooming overnight, her heart had opened
to love, and all the distemper in her blood and all the blackness in her
mind were dispelled. The relief from pain and dread was so great that
love became a beautiful and all-absorbing passion. Freed then, and
strangely happy, she took to the life around her as naturally as if she
had been born there, and she grew like a wild flower. Neale returned to
her that autumn to make perfect the realization of her dreams. When he
went away she could still be happy. She owed it to him to be perfect in
joy, faith, love, and duty; and her adversity had discovered to her an
inward courage and an indomitable will. She lived for Neale.

Summer, autumn, winter passed, short days full of solitude, beauty,
thought, and anticipation, and always achievement, for she could not
stay idle. When the first green brightened the cottonwoods and willows
along the brook she knew that before their leaves had attained their
full growth Neale would be on his way to her. A strange and inexplicable
sense of the heart told her that he was coming.

More than once that spring had she bent over the mossy rock to peer down
at her face mirrored in the crystal spring. Neale had made her aware
of her beauty, and she was proud of it, since it seemed to be such a
strange treasure to him.

On the May morning that Slingerland left her alone she was startled
by the clip-clop of horses trotting up the trail a few hours after his
departure.

Her first thought was that Neale and Larry had returned. All her being
suddenly radiated with rapture. She flew to the door.

Four horsemen rode into the clearing, but Neale was not among them.

Allie's joy was short-lived, and the reaction to disappointment was a
violent, agonizing wrench. She lost all control of her muscles for a
moment, and had to lean against the cabin to keep