gets in my road!"

"Well, I'm going to hook up this panel," he said, leaning and taking
hold of the wire end, "so you can come here and let it down any time you
feel like you have to cut the fence. That will do us about the same
damage, and you every bit as much good."

She was moved out of her sullen humor by this proposal for giving vent
to her passion against Vesta Philbrook. It seemed as if he regarded her
as a child, and her part in this fence-feud a piece of irresponsible
folly. It was so absurd in her eyes that she laughed.

"I suppose you're in earnest, but if you knew how foolish it sounds!"

"That's what I'm going to do, anyway. You know I'll just keep on fixing
the fence when you cut it, and this arrangement will save both of us
trouble. I'll put a can or something on one of the posts to mark the
spot for you."

"This fence isn't any joke with us, Mr. Lambert, funny as you seem to
think it. It's more than a fence, it's a symbol of all that stands
between us, all the wrongs we've suffered, and the losses, on account of
it. I know it makes her rave to cut it, and I expect you'll have a good
deal of fixing to do right along."

She started away, stopped a few rods beyond the fence, came back.

"There's always a place for a good man over at our ranch," she said.

He watched her braid of hair swinging from side to side as she galloped
away, with no regret for his rejected truce of the fence. She would come
back to cut it again, and again he would see her. Disloyal as it might
be to his employer, he hoped she would not delay the next excursion
long.

He had found her. No matter for the conditions under which the discovery
had been made, his quest was at an end, his long flights of fancy were
done. It was a marvelous thing for him, more wonderful than the
realization of his first expectations would have been. This wild spirit
of the girl was well in accord with the character he had given her in
his imagination. When he watched her away that day at Misery he knew she
was the kind of woman who would exact much of a man; as he looked after
her anew he realized that she would require more.

The man who found his way to her heart would have to take up her
hatreds, champion her feuds, ride in her forays, follow her wild will
against her enemies. He would have to sink the refinements of his
civilization, in a measure, discard all preconceived ideas of justice
and honor. He would have to hate a fence.

The thoug