I hope you'll die by inches in a prairie fire."

Then I hurried to my room and put in the hours of the night, wakeful and
angry at all the world, save my own Springvale and the dear little girl
so modest and true to me. The next day I left Topeka, hoping never to
see it again.

CHAPTER XIV

DEEPENING GLOOM

A yellow moon in splendor drooping,
A tired queen with her state oppressed,
Low by rushes and sword-grass stooping,
Lies she soft on the waves at rest.
The desert heavens have felt her sadness;
The earth will weep her some dewy tears;
The wild beck ends her tune of gladness,
And goeth stilly, as soul that fears.

--JEAN INGELOW.

The easiest mental act I ever performed was the act of forgetting the
existence of Rachel Melrose. Before the stage had reached the divide
beyond the Wakarusa on its southward journey, I was thinking only of
Springvale and of what would be written in the letter that I knew was
waiting for me in our "Rockport." Oh, I was a fond and foolish lover. I
was only twenty-one and Judson may have been right about my being
callow. But I was satisfied with myself, as youth and inexperience will
be.

Travelling was slow in those rough-going times, and a breakdown on a
steep bit of road delayed us. Instead of reaching home at sunset, we did
not reach the ford of the Neosho until eight o'clock. As I went up Cliff
Street I turned by the bushes and slid down the rough stairway to the
ledge below "Rockport." I had passed under the broad, overhanging shelf
that made the old playground above, when I suddenly became aware of the
nearness of some one to me, the peculiar consciousness of the presence
of a human being. The place was in deep shadow, although the full moon
was sailing in glory over the prairies, as it had done above the lone
Topeka locust tree. My daily visits here had made each step familiar,
however. I was only a few feet from the cunningly hidden crevice that
had done post-office duty for Marjie and me in the days of our
childhood. Just beside it was a deep niche in the wall. Ordinarily I was
free and noisy enough in my movements, but to-night I dropped silently
into the niche as some one hurried by me, groping to find the way.
Instinctively I thought of Jean Pahusca, but Jean never blundered like
this. I had had cause enough to know his swift motion. And besides, he
had been away from Springvale so long that he was only a memory now. The
figure scrambled to t