d been having, and of the
regret with which she would turn her back upon the wide horizons and the
freedom of it all.

"I brought my shell with me when I came," she confessed, laughing, "but
I think it is broken into little pieces by now. You will know how small
the pieces are when I tell you that 'Tennessee Jim,' your father's horse
wrangler, calls me 'Miz' Pat,' and it always makes me want to shake
hands with him."

Blount made the afternoon last as he could, sending the little car over
many miles of the mesa roads and encouraging the small confidences which
were enabling him to postpone his own evil hour. When the sun was
dipping toward the Carnadine Hills they returned over a trail which came
into the main Quaretaro road at a point where the northern highway
begins its descent to the lower mesa level. Half-way down the descending
gulch they came to the mouth of a small lateral canyon breaking into the
larger gorge from the eastward; a canyon dry for the greater part of the
year, but in the rainy season affording an outlet for the flood-waters
of the Little Shonoho.

"That is a road I have always wanted to explore," said Patricia,
pointing to the fine driveway leading up the small canyon. "That is one
of my weaknesses when I am driving; I am never able to pass a branch
road without wanting to turn aside and explore it."

"Then we'll explore this one, right now," said Blount, cutting the car
to the left. He was more than willing to delay, even by littles, the
moment when he should be obliged to resume the sorry business of waiting
and dissembling.

Miss Anners glanced at the tiny watch pinned upon her shoulder.

"Shall we have time? It's getting late."

"Plenty of time for all we shall be able to do or see up here," Blount
returned. "The road ends at the canyon head, a mile above. There is a
very small and very exclusive summer-resort hotel, called the Shonoho
Inn, on the upper level. It has a six-weeks' season--like the Florida
resorts--they tell me, and it is closed now."

It was within the next five hundred yards that the prediction that there
would be nothing to see anticipated its fulfilment. At a sudden turn in
the narrow defile they came to a brush-built barricade posted with a
sign:

ROAD WASHED OUT ABOVE
NO PASSING FOR VEHICLES!

"That settles it," said Blount shortly, and he turned the car and let it
roll back down the grade to the main gulch.

When they were once more speeding toward town Blo