"That's what we're trying to do."

He pointed to the candle in its daubed bottle.

"Just to keep the light burning, Jed--just to keep its light fighting back the darkness. The little flame of that candle breaks the power of the black thing which would shut it in--like a heart being good and true in spite of the rotten body in which it beats. And when my body commences to want the old things--to want them, oh, so badly--I just think of this little candle here, calm and quiet and steady, sticking out of what was once a cesspool, a poison pot, and making a place in the night where men can see."

While a hundred could have been counted slowly they remained motionless, quiet, not a sound breaking the silence.

Then Jed began talking in a half-tone:

"I know, Young VB; I know. You've got time now to light it and nurse th' flame up so's it won't need watchin'--an' not miss things that go by in th' dark. Some of us puts it off too long--like a man I know--now. I didn't know him then--when it happened. He was wanderin'

around in a night that never turned to day, thinkin' he knowed where he was goin', but all th' time just bein' fooled by th' dark.

"And there was a girl back in Kansas. He started after her, but it was so dark he couldn't find th' way, an' when he did--

"Some folks is fools enough to say women don't die of broken hearts.

But--well, when a feller knows some things he wants to go tell 'em to men who don't know; to help 'em to understand, if he can; to give 'em a hand if they do see but can't find their way out--"

He stopped, staring at the floor. VB had no cause to search for ident.i.ties.

From the corral came a shrill, prolonged neighing. VB arose and laid a hand gently on Jed's bowed shoulder.

"That's the Captain," he said solemnly; "and he calls me when he's thirsty."

While he was gone Jed remained as he had been left, staring at the floor.

CHAPTER XII

Woman Wants

Gail Thorpe rose from the piano in the big ranch house of the S Bar S, rearranged the mountain flowers that filled a vase on a tabouret, then knocked slowly, firmly, commandingly, on a door that led from the living room.

"Well, I don't want you; but I s'pose you might as well come in and get it off your mind!"

The voice from the other side spoke in feigned annoyance. It continued to grumble until a lithe figure, topped by a ma.s.s of hair like pulled sunshine, flung itself at him, twining warm arms about his neck and kissing the words from the lips of big Bob Thorpe as he sat before his desk in the room that served as the ranch office.

"Will you ever say it again--that you don't want me?" she demanded.

"No--but merely because I'm intimidated into promising," he answered.

His big arms went tight about the slender body and he pulled his daughter up on his lap.

A silence, while she fussed with his necktie. Her blue eyes looked into his gray ones a moment as though absently, then back to the necktie.

Her fingers fell idle; her head snuggled against his neck. Bob Thorpe laughed loud and long.

"Well, what is it this morning?" he asked between chuckles.

The girl sat up suddenly, pushed back the hair that defied fastenings, and tapped a stretched palm with the stiff forefinger of the other hand.

"I'm not a Western girl," she declared deliberately; and then, as the brown face before her clouded, hastened: "Oh, I'm not wanting to go away! I mean, I'm not truly a Western girl, but I want to be. I want to fit better.

"When we decided that I should graduate and come back here with my mommy and daddy for the rest of my life, I decided. There was nothing halfway about it. Some of the other girls thought it awful; but I don't see the attraction in their way of living.

"When I was a little girl I was a sort of tom-cow-boy. I could do things as well as any of the boys I ever knew could do them. But after ten years, mostly away in the East, where girls are like plants, I've lost it all. Now I want to get it back."

"Well, go to it!"

"Wait! I want to start well--high up. I want to have the best that there is to have. I--want--a--horse!"

"Horse? Bless me, _bambino_, there are fifty broken horses running in the back pasture now, besides what the boys have on the ride. Take your pick!"

"Oh, I know!" she said with gentle scoffing. "That sort of a horse--just cow-ponies. I love 'em, but I guess--well--"

"You've been educated away from 'em, you mean?" he chuckled.

"Well, whatever it is--I want something better. I, as a daughter of the biggest, best man in Colorado, want to ride the best animal that ever felt a cinch."

"Well?"

"And I want to have him now, so I can get used to him this fall and look forward to coming back to him in the spring."

Bob Thorpe took both her hands in one of his.

"And if a thing like that will make my bambino happy, I guess she'll have it."

The girl kissed him and held her cheek close against his for a breath.

"When I go to Denver for the stock show I'll pick the best blue ribbon--"

"Denver!" she exclaimed indignantly, sitting straight and tossing her head. "I want a real horse--a horse bred and raised in these mountains--a horse I can trust. None of your blue-blooded stock.

They're like the girls I went to college with!"

Bob Thorpe let his laughter roll out.

"Well, what do you expect to find around here? Have you seen anything you like?"

She pulled her hands from his grasp and stretched his mouth out of shape with her little fingers until he squirmed.

"No, I haven't seen him; but I've heard the cowboys talking. Over at Mr. Avery's ranch they've caught a black horse--"

Bob Thorpe set her suddenly up on the arm of his chair and shook her soundly.

"Look here, young lady!" he exclaimed. "You're dreaming! I know what horse you're talking about. He's a wild devil that has run these hills for years. I heard he'd been caught. Get the notion of having him out of your head. I've never seen him but once, and then he was away off; but I've heard tales of him. Why--

"Nonsense! In the first place, he couldn't be broken to ride. Men aren't made big enough to break the spirit of a devil like that!

They're bigger than humans. So we can end this discussion in peace.

It's impossible!"