a perished idyl,--the Mission
garden in the shade of the venerable pear trees.

But, besides this, other influences tugged at his heart. There was a
mystery in the garden. In that spot the night was not always empty, the
darkness not always silent. Something far off stirred and listened to
his cry, at times drawing nearer to him. At first this presence had
been a matter for terror; but of late, as he felt it gradually drawing
nearer, the terror had at long intervals given place to a feeling of an
almost ineffable sweetness. But distrusting his own senses, unwilling
to submit himself to such torturing, uncertain happiness, averse to the
terrible confusion of spirit that followed upon a night spent in the
garden, Vanamee had tried to keep away from the place. However, when the
sorrow of his life reassailed him, and the thoughts and recollections of
Angele brought the ache into his heart, and the tears to his eyes, the
temptation to return to the garden invariably gripped him close. There
were times when he could not resist. Of themselves, his footsteps turned
in that direction. It was almost as if he himself had been called.

Guadalajara was silent, dark. Not even in Solotari's was there a light.
The town was asleep. Only the inevitable guitar hummed from an unseen
'dobe. Vanamee pushed on. The smell of the fields and open country, and
a distant scent of flowers that he knew well, came to his nostrils,
as he emerged from the town by way of the road that led on towards the
Mission through Quien Sabe. On either side of him lay the brown earth,
silently nurturing the implanted seed. Two days before it had rained
copiously, and the soil, still moist, disengaged a pungent aroma of
fecundity.

Vanamee, following the road, passed through the collection of buildings
of Annixter's home ranch. Everything slept. At intervals, the aer-motor
on the artesian well creaked audibly, as it turned in a languid breeze
from the northeast. A cat, hunting field-mice, crept from the shadow
of the gigantic barn and paused uncertainly in the open, the tip of
her tail twitching. From within the barn itself came the sound of the
friction of a heavy body and a stir of hoofs, as one of the dozing cows
lay down with a long breath.

Vanamee left the ranch house behind him and proceeded on his way. Beyond
him, to the right of the road, he could make out the higher ground in
the Mission enclosure, and the watching tower of the Mission itself. The
minu