g to do
with this?" She indicated the ruined valley with her hand.

"No more than I had to do with those coward's stakes," he answered.
"Neither of us understand just now, but can we take that much for
granted?"

There was something about him that rather appealed to her. "I think we
can," she said, simply.

For a moment they watched the kaleidoscopic scene below them. "It may
help you to understand," she continued, "if I say that I was riding down
to see if I could be of some use to Mrs. Landson when the wind changed,
and I saw I would be more likely to be needed here."

"And it may help you to understand," he said, "if I say that as soon as
immediate danger to the Landson ranch was over I rode up to Transley's
camp. Only the cook was there, and he told me of your having set out
to help Mrs. Lint, so I followed up. Fortunately the fire has lost its
punch; it will probably go out through the night."

There was a short silence, in which she began to realize her peculiar
position. This man was the rival of Transley and Linder in the business
of hay-cutting in the valley. He was the foreman of the Landson
crowd--Landson, against whom her father had been voicing something very
near to murder threats not many hours ago. Had she met him before the
fire she would have spurned and despised him, but nothing unites the
factions of man like a fight against a common elemental enemy. Besides,
there was the question, How DID the fire start? That was a question
which every Landson man would be asking. Grant had been generous about
it; he had asked her to be equally generous about the episode of the
stakes.... And there was something about the man that appealed to her.
She had never felt that way about Transley or Linder. She had been
interested in them; amused, perhaps; out for an adventure, perhaps; but
this man--Nonsense! It was the environment--the romantic setting. As for
Drazk--A quick sense of horror caught her as the memory of his choking
face protruded into her consciousness....

"Well, suppose we ride home," he suggested. "By Jove! The fire has
worked around us."

It was true. The hill on which they stood was now entirely surrounded
by a ring of fire, eating slowly up the side. The warmth of its breath
already pressed against their faces; the funnel effect created by the
circle of fire was whipping up a stronger draught. The smoke seemed to
be gathering to a centre above them.

He swung up close to her. "Will your ho