e
Dick made slow time along the snowy path broken by wagons through the
drifts, but the rider let the animal choose his own gait, as he had
done that hot July day when coming up from the south to buy the Perro
Creek ranch. On reaching the ford Lee pulled rein. How different now
the creek from on that burning afternoon of his encounter with Ruth
Gardner and Imogene Martin! Snow covered its bed; the sands where he
had knelt, the little pool, the foot-prints, lay hidden from sight.
How much had happened since! And how different was his life! He had
suffered much and learned much since that hour of meeting; and he
should never henceforth view this spot without a little feeling of
melancholy. The youth and two girls who drank there at the rill were
no more: they had become other persons.

Presently he dismissed thoughts of this and set Dick wading across the
ford. Yonder he now could see the three bare cottonwoods, with the low
adobe house near by where he and Dave had lived and laboured at the
surveys for the project. The bones of his dog Mike, too, rested there
under the ground. This brought to mind the meeting with Louise upon
the road--and it was Louise to whom at this moment he was going. He
began to urge Dick to greater efforts. Once on a stretch of road, bare
and wind-swept, he pushed him into a gallop. It seemed interminable,
this snow-bound trail. But at last he crossed Sarita Creek (with but a
single glance at the canon's mouth where the two cabins stood
untenanted and abandoned among the naked trees) and then covered the
long miles to Diamond Creek, and rode up the lane between the rows of
cottonwoods to the house, where Louise, who had perceived his approach
from a window, appeared at the door to greet him.

"We were terribly alarmed for your safety the night of the blizzard,"
she said, "but the mail-man finally made his trip to Bartolo and back,
and said you were still there and not blown away. And he also stated
that you were working night and day."

"Not any more," said Lee, swinging from the saddle.

"You have finished! I can read it on your face!" she cried, joyfully.

"Yes; we threw out the last clod at one o'clock this morning."

"I needn't tell you that I'm proud and happy; you know that, Lee. Even
happier than when I learned you were able to continue, at the time you
supposed you were unable. Put up your horse and come in. You're half
frozen."

Bryant endeavoured to discover from her face what he