The Rim of the Desert

acy, Mr. Tisdale, and a little wicked, yet with unexpe

"Yes, only"-and he waited to catch the glance she lifted from the s

a ridge; spurs constantly closed after them; there seemed no way back or through, then, like an opening gate, a bluff detached from the wall ahead, and they entered another breadth of valley. In the wide levels that bordered the river, young orchards began to supplant the sage. Looking down from the thoroughfare, the even rows and squares seemed wrought on the

It was marvelous that fruit could so crowd and cling to a slender stem and yet round and color to such perfection. Miss Armitage slowed the horses down and looked up the shady avenues. Presently a driveway divided

"This is that station m

eauty

lied with huge, scoop-shaped buckets, was lifting water from the river to distribute it over a reclaimed section. The bays pranced toward it suspiciously

large and brilliant signboard set in an area of sage-

f these Ch

rming, slightly mo

to-

e this Property th

re the Pr

h Henders

s Hesperides V

madam, and your journey's end. Probably the next

es parted like drawn curtains and opened a blue vista of canyon closed by a lofty snow-peak. The sun had more than

r eyes continued to search the far blue canyon, but her color heightened at

occurred to you, Mr. Tisdale, that I might be in

appraisal. Under it her color flamed; she, turned her face farthe

five-acre tracts to put on the market. Of course we knew nothing of the difficulties of the road; we had heard it was an old stage route, and we expected to motor through and return the same day. So, when the accident happened to the car in Snoqualmie Pass, and the others were taking the Milwaukee train home, I decided, on the impulse of the moment, to finish thi

ly, his face clouding again, "I see Mrs. Weatherbee had been talking to you about that tract. It's strange I hadn't thought of that possibility. I'll wager she even tried to sell

her lip trembled. "Be fair," she sa

th again, the corners of his eyes. "I am going to take you over the ground with me;

ed quickly. "I-you must know"-she paused, her l

road, he said: "I think we take that branch. But wait!" He drew his map from his pocke

cut the valley diagonally, away from the Wenatchee, past a last orchard, into wild lands that stretched in level benches under the mountain wall. One tawny, sage-mottled slope began to detach from the

Cerberus. It is all sketched in true as life on his plans. Th

the cry of the cougar came down the wind, rose in her face. It was as though she had come upon that beast, more terrifying than she had feared, lying in wait for her. Then the moment passed. She rais

this personality of inanimate things. That was David Weatherbee's trouble. You know h

eated him. "Yes, I know," she said, and her voice was almost a whisper. "I

was almost tenderness crept over Tisdale's face. How fine she was, how sensitively made, and how me

along the road side,-a stream so small it was marvelous it had a voice. As they rounded the mountain, the gap widened into the mouth of the vale, which

nd a rough sign nailed to a hingeless wicket warned the wayfarer to "Keep Out." On a rocky knob near this entrance a gaunt, hard-featu

n and her flock, then searched the barren field for some sort of hitching post. But the few bushes along the stream wer

st, and the amusement broke softly in

ngly," she answered, "but we must

can hold the colts that long,

the sparkles danced in her eye

pin to open the wicket. Then, "You keep off my land," she ordered sharply. "

've used the water seven years, I get the rights." She sprang backward with a cattish mo

with his steady, appraising eyes, while

the map, he turned to hold it under her glance-"at the mouth of this gap, and lifts back through

to settle in the curve of her arm. "I piped the water down," she

field notes with me and the owner's landscape plans. And I am a surveyor, madam. It won't take me long to find out whether there is a mistake. But, before I go over the ground, I mu

s breaks away, the whole herd'll go wild. I can't round 'em in without my dog. He's off trailing one of the ewes. She strayed yesterday, and he'll chase the mountain thro

dropped to its soft undernote. "That's mighty hard.

hauled my load of lumber stopped long enoug

Made all the necessary improvements, single-handed, to hol

make much of a show yet; I've had to be off so much in the mountains, foraging with the herd. But I was able to hire a boy half a day with the shearing t

ack at Miss Armitage, who had turned the bays, al

on, "what led you to choo

"; she moved abreast of H

a glimmer of amusement in his e

re on timber, and when he got tired waiting for stumpage to soar, he put up a dinky sawmill to cut his own trees. He was doing well, for him, getting out ties for a new railroad-it was down

oplar that formed the corner post. He saw that the wire ends met there and felt in

ed for the seventeenth of June, and that was only May. And I

stle, isolated, denied human intercourse,

all right. He had been

at wedding had

opened his knife. "A

m to Dawson. He was gone in less than twenty-four hours and before daylight, that night he left, I heard those goats ma-a-ing under my window. He had staked them there

ped the knife in between the ends of the wires and the bol

mail. But the post-office was moved that year five miles to the new railroad station, and they put in a new man. Of course that meant a line of goods, too, and competition. Trade fell off, then sickness came. It lasted two years, and when Dad was gone, there wasn't much left of the store

nd started to work on another. "But there was the m

hat kind. The most I could do was to see what I could make of the goats. I commenced herding them myself, but I hadn't th

stooped to pick it up. "That's whe

rned her thoughts from the fence, and he slipped the knife in farther and continued t

mself through your eyes. He was ashamed of his failures-he had always been a little sensitive about his size-and it wasn't the usual enthusiasm that started him to Alaska; he was stung into going. It was like him to play his poor joke gamily, at the last, and pretend he didn't care. A word from you would have held him-you must have known that-and a letter from you afterwards, when you needed him,

res worked; tears

e with the gush that follows a probe. "You know him," she

arkably pretty girl, with merry black eyes and a nice color in her cheeks. Seems to me she used to wear a pink gown sometimes,

wear nice clothes. He said it advertised the store." Then her glance

as though she had not spoken; "a big, handsome fellow, who came oftener than the rest. Banks thought it was nat

t so long, fostered in solitude, filled the vent and surged through. Her shoulders shook, she stumbled a f

ket. "I am going now," he said. "You will have to watch your goats until I get the horses throug

ace. "I wish I dared to. But he wouldn't know me now;

lly. "But leave it to me. I think I can get i

e field. "Oh," she cried, when he reached the waiting

her heart-strings, to gain time, and struck an unexpect