Lucy,
with gravity.

"Sometimes I doubt, too," said Slone. "But I only have to look at
Wildfire to get back my nerve.... Lucy, that will be the grandest race
ever run!"

"Yes," sighed Lucy.

"What's wrong? Don't you want Wildfire to win?"

"Yes and no. But I'm going to beat the King, anyway.... Bring on your
Wildfire!"

Lucy unsaddled Sarchedon and turned him loose to graze while Slone went
out after Wildfire. And presently it appeared that Lucy might have some
little time to wait. Wildfire had lately been trusted to hobbles, which
fact made it likely that he had strayed.

Lucy gazed about her at the great looming red walls and out through the
avenues to the gray desert beyond. This adventure of hers would soon
have an end, for the day of the races was not far distant, and after
that it was obvious she would not have occasion to meet Slone. To think
of never coming to the pass again gave Lucy a pang. Unconsciously she
meant that she would never ride up here again, because Slone would not
be here. A wind always blew through the pass, and that was why the sand
was so clean and hard. To-day it was a pleasant wind, not hot, nor
laden with dust, and somehow musical in the cedars. The blue smoke from
Slone's fire curled away and floated out of sight. It was lonely, with
the haunting presence of the broken walls ever manifest. But the
loneliness seemed full of content. She no longer wondered at Slone's
desert life. That might be well for a young man, during those years
when adventure and daring called him, but she doubted that it would be
well for all of a man's life. And only a little of it ought to be known
by a woman. She saw how the wildness and loneliness and brooding of
such a life would prevent a woman's development. Yet she loved it all
and wanted to live near it, so that when the need pressed her she could
ride out into the great open stretches and see the dark monuments grow
nearer and nearer, till she was under them, in the silent and colored
shadows.

Slone returned presently with Wildfire. The stallion shone like a flame
in the sunlight. His fear and hatred of Slone showed in the way he
obeyed. Slone had mastered him, and must always keep the upper hand of
him. It had from the first been a fight between man and beast, and Lucy
believed it would always be so.

But Wildfire was a different horse when he saw Lucy. Day by day
evidently Slone loved him more and tried harder to win a little of what
Wildfire