had realized that if Mary's inclination led to literature it was worse
than useless to attempt to interest her in any other profession.
Therefore, when she had announced her intention of going West he had
interposed no objection; on the contrary had urged her to the venture.
What might have been his attitude had not Ben Radford been already in
the West is problematical. Very seldom do we decide a thing until it
confronts us.

Mary Radford had been surprised at the West. From Ben's cabin in the
flat she had made her first communion with this new world that she had
worshipped at first sight. It was as though she had stepped out of an
old world into one that was just experiencing the dawn of creation's
first morning. At least so it had seemed to her on the morning she had
first stepped outside her brother's cabin to view her first sunrise.

She had breathed the sweet, moisture-laden breezes that had seemed to
almost steal over the flat where she had stood watching the shadows
yield to the coming sun. The somber hills had become slowly outlined;
the snow caps of the distant mountain peaks glinted with the brilliant
shafts that struck them and reflected into the dark recesses below.
Nature was king here and showed its power in a mysterious, though
convincing manner.

In the evening there would come a change. Through rifts in the
mountains descended the sun, spreading an effulgent expanse of yellow
light--like burnished gold. In the shadows were reflected numerous
colors, all quietly blended, making contrasts of perfect harmony.
There were the sinuous buttes that bordered the opposite shore of the
river--solemn sentinels guarding the beauty and purity of this virgin
land. Near her were sloping hills, dotted with thorny cactus and other
prickly plants, and now rose a bald rock spire with its suggestion of
grim lonesomeness. In the southern and eastern distances were the
plains, silent, vast, unending. It seemed she had come to dwell in a
land deserted by some cyclopean race. Its magnificent, unchanging
beauty had enthralled her.

She had not lacked company. She found that the Two Diamond punchers
were eager to gain her friendship. Marvelous excuses were invented for
their appearance at the cabin in the flat. She thought that Ben's
friendship was valued above that of all other persons in the
surrounding country.

But she found the punchers gentlemen. Though their conversation was
unique and their idioms p