6

XXI Bound to the stake 458

XXII "There are some things we have
to settle for ourselves" 467

XXIII "At any cost" 496

XXIV Facing consequences 506

XXV "The weight of a dollaree and out
of debt don't forget that" 534

XXVI "Was--was my papa here then?" 540

XXVII To do over, and to do better,
was the opportunity offered 548

XXVIII "Till death do you part" considered 562

THE WIND BEFORE THE DAWN

CHAPTER I

CASTLES IN SPAIN

The unclouded sun of a burning August day had driven bird and beast to
shelter wherever a bit of shade could be found. The Kansas prairie
afforded little refuge from sun or wind. The long stretches of low rolling
hills were mostly covered with short grass, now dry from a protracted
season of drought. Occasionally a group of stunted cottonwood trees
surrounded an equally stunted looking hut, or dugout, but the blazing
sunshine had browned all to a monotonous tone in keeping with the
monotonous life it represented. The only corn to be seen was of the
variety called sod-corn, which, unwashed by rain for a full month now, had
failed to mature, such stalks as had tasselled at all being as barren as
the rest because the tender silks had dried too rapidly and could furnish
no fertilizing moisture to the pollen which sifted down from the scanty
bloom above.

The sun's rays beat down upon the head of a fourteen-year-old girl who
rode slowly around a herd of cattle, the members of which lay in the
unavailing shade of the rosin weeds or browsed drowsily on the short
grass. The day had been long and hard. The child knew that it was not
later than two o'clock, having counted the hours eagerly since early
morning, and having eaten her bit of cornbread and bacon full two hours
before. She stopped her horse for the fortieth time, however, to get the
angle of her shadow on the ground and to confirm her calculations. The
sigh she gave as she again started on her round was not of relief, but of
resignation. It was necessary to keep on the move or she was likely to
fall asleep in her saddle, and then the cattle would escape to the nearby
fields, and there would be a neighbourhood altercation over the matter,
whether the fields held crops of value or not, farmers being jealous of