"Do you think it is always necessary to speak?" she answered, looking at him with a quiet smile. "Don't you think there are times when one's thoughts find expression in one's eyes? When we can not conceal them--no matter how hard we try? I know that you were thinking of the country,"

she went on earnestly, "because a few moments ago I had been thinking of it too and I know that my emotions were exactly the same as those expressed in your eyes. It is magnificent, isn't it?" she said in an awed, eager voice. "It is so big, so mighty, so soul-stirring. It allures with its vastness, it dazzles with its beauty; it makes one feel closer to the Creator, even while pressing home a disquieting sense of one's own insignificance.

"For instance," she went on, her eyes large and luminous, a new, quiet color coming into her face "there are times when our tasks seem stupendous, when we are filled with an overpowering consciousness of the importance of them; when we feel that we are carrying such a burden that the addition of another would make the load too heavy. Then we look upon G.o.d's work and immediately a still, small voice within us cries: 'What have ye done in comparison to this?' And what have we done?" she suddenly demanded.

"Nothing," he returned gravely, awed by this fleeting illuminating glimpse into her soul.

She leaned back into her chair with a smile. "Those were the things I was thinking about. And you, too, were thinking of them," she added.

"Now, don't deny it!" she warned, "for I saw it in your eyes!"

"No!" he said with a quick smile; "I don't deny it. But I was thinking of the people also."

"Oh, the people!" she said with a frown.

"Perhaps I should have said 'person,'" he modified with a quick glance at her, under which her eyes drooped in swift confusion--as they had drooped on another occasion which he remembered.

"Oh!" she said merely.

"I have been comparing this person to G.o.d's other works," he said, a light in his eyes which told that the former decision to postpone an attempt to uncover the mystery had been ruthlessly put aside, "and I have come to the conclusion that in spite of the infinite care he took in forming the beautiful world out yonder he did not neglect this person to whom I refer."

Her eyes met his in a glance of swift comprehension. She drew a slow, deep breath and averted her face, which was now crimson.

"As you have been able to ill.u.s.trate man's insignificance in comparison to G.o.d's mighty creations, so has my own inferiority been forced upon me by my attempting to compare myself to the sweet character of the person of whom I speak," said Hollis, his voice low and earnest. "It has been a question whether--when I speak to her of a thing which has been on my mind for many days--she could not with justice paraphrase the question asked by the still, small voice and say: What have you done to deserve this? And I should have to reply--nothing." He had moved closer to her, leaning forward to look into her eyes.

She sat very still, her gaze on the basin. "Perhaps this very estimable person holds other views?" she returned, with a flash of mischief in her eyes. She turned suddenly and looked straight at him, meeting his gaze unwaveringly, a demure smile on her face. "I told you that sometimes a person's thoughts were expressed in their eyes," she said--and now her lashes flickered--"perhaps you can tell what my thoughts are?"

It was a challenge, a defiance, and an unconditional surrender. Like a flash one of Hollis's arms went out--she was drawn, vainly protesting, toward him.

"You haven't answered," she laughed, in a smothered voice; "you are not certain----"

She did not finish the sentence. Mrs. Norton, coming to the door for a breath of fresh air, halted on the threshold, looked, smiled, and then quietly--very quietly--slipped back into the house.

Away out over the basin a Mexican eagle circled, winging his slow way through the golden sunshine of the afternoon. Miles away the mountain peaks rose somberly, a mysterious, golden halo rising slowly above them.

Perhaps there would always be mystery in the mountains, but a certain mystery that had troubled Hollis mightily had been successfully solved.

The G.o.ds had favored him.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE SEAR AND YELLOW DAYS

"This here town,"--read a letter that Hollis received from Weary late in September--"aint fit for no man to live in which thinks anythink of hisself, in the first place theres two many folks here which dont seem to know what to do with themselves they just keep millin around an actin like they was ready to stampead any time. In the 2nd place im runnin shy of dust an id admire for to receave about a months pay which i wont charge two you bein as ive already spent more then i ought two its a good thing i got a return ticket or id be in a h.e.l.l of a fix when i got ready to come back last nite the doctor at the hospittle said hed operate on ed today which hes already done this mornin an eds restin easy though the doc dont know whether hes goin to git well or not but hes hopin an ile let you know by telegraph if he gits any worse which is all for this time.

P. S. say boss dont forgit to hustel that coin ile shure make it right with you i forgot to tell you that i got cleaned out by a card sharper here i would have tore him apart but about a million sheriffs piled onto me an i dident have no chancst what in h.e.l.l does any town need with so many sheriffs.

"Weary.

"P. S. id like to be home for the round-up but reckon i wont make it.

"Weary."

Nellie Hazelton did not see this letter, though Hollis told her that Ed had been operated on and that he was doing as well as could be expected.

And the telegraph that night flashed Weary's "coin" to him.

The days pa.s.sed all too quickly now, for the time for the fall round-up was at hand and Hollis realized with regret that his daily rides--with Nellie Hazelton as a companion--must soon be discontinued.

The nights had already grown cool; snow had appeared on the mountain peaks; the basin was no longer a great green bowl, but resembled a mammoth, concave palette upon which nature had mixed her colors--yellow and gold and brown, with here and there a blotch of red and purple, a dash of green,--lingering over the season--and great, wide stretches of gray. The barren spots seemed to grow more barren--mocked by the scarlet blossoms of the cactus that seemed to be everlasting, and the fringing, yellow soap weed, hardy, defying the advancing winter. Razor-Back ridge was a desolate place. Never attractive, it reared aloft barren and somber, frowning down upon its fringe of shrubbery the latter stripped of its leaves, its scant beauty gone and bending its bare branches stubbornly to the early winds.

With the last day of the month came a rain--a cold, bitter, driving storm that raged for three days and started a drift that the cattlemen could not stop. Arrayed in tarpaulins the cowboys went forth, suffering, cursing, laboring heroically to stem the tide. The cattle retreated steadily before the storm--no human agency could halt them. On the second day Norton came into the Circle Bar ranchhouse, wet, disgusted, but fighting mad.

"If this d.a.m.n rain don't stop pretty soon," he told Hollis as he dried himself before the open fireplace, "we'll have cattle down here from over the Colorado line. An' then there'll be h.e.l.l to pay!"

But on the third day the rain ceased and the sun came out. The country lay smiling in the sunshine, mellow, glistening, inviting. But the damage had been wrought. From Lemuel Train of the Pig Pen outfit, came word that fifty per cent of his cattle were missing. Truxton of the Diamond Dot, Henningson of the Three Bar, and nearly all of the other small owners, reported losses. Of course the cattle would be recovered during the fall round up, but they were now scattered and fair prey for cattle thieves, and with the round up still two weeks away it seemed that many must be stolen.

Yet there was nothing that could be done; it is folly to attempt to "cut out" cattle on the open range.

From the editorial columns of the _Kicker_ might be gleaned the fact that the Law had come into Union County. Many men of Dry Bottom entered the _Kicker_ office to thank Hollis; others boldly draped their houses with flags and bunting.

Dunlavey had visited Dry Bottom twice since the incident of the primary.

He had said nothing concerning the incident to anyone save possibly his intimates, but from the sneer that appeared on his face when approached by those whom he considered friendly to Hollis it was plain that he intended continuing the fight.

Hollis had been compelled to record in the _Kicker_ the unpleasant news that Dunlavey had refused to comply with the new law regulating brands and the submitting of lists for taxation, and also that he had threatened to shoot the first officer trespa.s.sed on his land. Dunlavey had not complied with the law, but he had failed to carry out his threat to "shoot the first officer that trespa.s.sed on his land," for Allen had trespa.s.sed several times, openly and boldly. Moreover, Dunlavey had seen him, had even spoken to him, but had offered no violence.

Perhaps in a calmer mood Dunlavey had decided not to use his weapon; perhaps there was something about the quiet, cool, and deliberate Allen which convinced Dunlavey that the former might be able to give a good account of himself in the event of trouble. At any rate several times Allen had ridden the Circle Cross range unmolested by either Dunlavey or his men. He explored the farthest limits of the Circle Cross property, tallying the cattle, nosing around the corrals, examining brands, and doing sundry other things not calculated to allay Dunlavey's anger over this new and odd condition of affairs.

Then one day he failed to visit the Circle Cross. Instead, he appeared to Potter in the office of the _Kicker_ with copy for a poster announcing the sale by auction of a thousand of Dunlavey's best cattle.

He ordered Potter to print it so that he might post copies throughout the county within a week. The night following the issue of the _Kicker_ containing the announcement concerning the coming of the law Potter had informed Hollis that he had that day delivered the notices to Allen.

CHAPTER XXVIII

IN DEFIANCE OF THE LAW

Hollis had demonstrated the fact that a majority of Dry Bottom's citizens welcomed the law. Dry Bottom had had a law, to be sure--the law of the six-shooter, with the cleverest man "on the trigger" as its chief advocate. Few men cared to appear before such a court with an argument against its jurisdiction. The law, as the citizens of Dry Bottom had seen it, was an inst.i.tution which frowned upon such argument. Few men cared to risk an adverse decision of the established court to advocate laws which would come from civilized authority; they had remained silent against the day when it would come in spite of the element that had scoffed at it. And now that day had arrived. The Law had come.

Even the evil element knew it. The atmosphere was vibrant with suppressed excitement; in the stores men and women were congregated; in the saloons rose a buzz of continuous conversation. On the street men greeted one another with subdued voices, or halted one another to discuss the phenomenon. In a dozen conspicuous places were posted flaring, printed notices, informing the reader that a thousand of the Circle Cross cattle--a description of which followed--were, on the following day, to be sold to the highest bidder. Below this announcement, in small, neat print, was quoted the Law.

Dry Bottom gasped. The saloons swarmed. In the Fashion two bartenders and the proprietor labored heroically to supply their customers with the liquid stimulant which would nerve them to look upon Ben Allen's posters with a certain degree of equanimity. The reckless element--the gun-men who in a former day were wont to swagger forth with reckless disregard for the polite conventions--skulked in the background, sneering at this thing which had come to rob them of their power and which, they felt, presaged their ultimate downfall.

But Dry Bottom ignored the gun-men, or smiled blandly at them, giving its attention to Ben Allen's posters and discussing a rumor which had gained rapid credence, to the effect that the new governor had telegraphed Allen that he would hold a detail of United States soldiers in readiness for any contingency.

The good citizens smiled. And throughout the day many of them pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed the _Kicker_ office, anxious to get a glimpse of the man who had been instrumental in bringing about this innovation.

Shortly after noon on the same day Dunlavey rode into Dry Bottom, dismounted, hitched his pony to the rail in front of the Fashion, and entered.