But Stephen remained obdurate, and, repeating
his thanks and farewells, he urged Pat forward
at a walk because he himself could not stand the
racking of a more rapid gait. The men sent after
him expressions of regret mingled with friendly
denunciations, but lie rode steadily on, closing
his ears grimly against their pleas, and soon he
was moving slowly across the Arizona desert.
His direction was northwest, and his destination,
though new to him, a little town on the Santa Fe.

As he rode forward through the quiet of the
afternoon he found his thoughts a curious conflict.
At times he would think of the girl, and of
his love for her, and of the long, still hours spent
in the ranch-house brooding, especially the nights,
when, gazing out at the stars, he had wondered
whether she knew, or, knowing, whether, after
all, she really cared. They had been lonely
nights, fever-tossed and restless, nights sometimes
curiously made up of pictures -- pictures of
a runaway horse and of a girl mounted upon the
horse, and of long walks and rides and talks
with her afterward, and of the last night in her
company, outside a corral and underneath a smiling
moon, the girl in white, her eyes burning with
a strange glow, himself telling his love for her,
and hearing in return only that she did not and
could not return that love.

These were his thoughts at times as he rode
forward through the desert solitude. Then he
would awaken to his physical torture, and in
this he would completely forget his spiritual dis-

[[261]]

p260 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p261w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p262

v?