Her steps dragged. She knew something dreadful had happened. Her heart
beat slowly and painfully; there was an oppression upon her breast; her
brain whirled with contending tides of thought. She remembered Wade's
face. How blind she had been! It exhausted her to walk, though she went
so slowly. There seemed to be a chill and a darkening in the atmosphere,
an unreality in the familiar slopes and groves, a strangeness and shadow
upon White Slides Valley.

Moore did not return to meet her. His white horse grazed in the pasture
opposite the first clump of willows, where Sage Valley merged into the
larger valley. Then she saw other horses, among them Lem Billings's bay
mustang. Columbine faltered on, when suddenly she recognized the horse
Jack had ridden--a sorrel, spent and foam-covered, standing saddled,
with bridle down and riderless--then certainty of something awful
clamped her with horror. Men's husky voices reached her throbbing ears.
Some one was running. Footsteps thudded and died away. Then she saw Lem
Billings come out of the willows, look her way, and hurry toward her.
His awkward, cowboy gait seemed too slow for his earnestness. Columbine
felt the piercing gaze of his eyes as her own became dim.

"Miss Collie, thar's been--turrible fight!" he panted.

"Oh, Lem!... I know. It was Ben--and Jack," she cried.

"Shore. Your hunch's correct. An' it couldn't be no wuss!"

Columbine tried to see his face, the meaning that must have accompanied
his hoarse voice; but she seemed going blind.

"Then--then--" she whispered, reaching out for Lem.

"Hyar, Miss Collie," he said, in great concern, as he took kind and
gentle hold of her. "Reckon you'd better wait. Let me take you home."

"Yes. But tell--tell me first," she cried, frantically. She could not
bear suspense, and she felt her senses slipping away from her.

"My Gawd! who'd ever have thought such hell would come to White Slides!"
exclaimed Lem, with strong emotion. "Miss Collie, I'm powerful sorry fer
you. But mebbe it's best so.... They're both dead!... Wade just died
with his head on Wils's lap. But Jack never knowed what hit him. He was
shot plumb center--both his eyes shot out!... Wade was shot low down....
Montana an' me agreed thet Jack throwed his gun first an' Wade killed
him after bein' mortal shot himself."

* * * * *

Late that afternoon, as Columbine lay upon her bed, the strange
stillness of the house was disturb