sky seeking cedars where her father's ranch house stood.
Half a mile away the girl made out the wide verandahs, the long flight
of steps, the hammock where she had read and dozed last night, yes, and
dreamed the tender, half wistful, yet rose tinted dreams of maidenhood.
She saw, too, the stables at the base of the knoll, to the northward,
where one of the boys, Charlie or Jim, was harnessing the greys,
preparatory to hitching them to the big wagon. The thought flashed
through her mind that he counted upon going out for a load of wood, and
that he would be called upon first to bring in another burden that he
would never forget.

Her eyes went back to the house. There was some one sitting in a
rocker in the shade near the front door. It was her mother. This news
would be a bitter, bitter shock to the tender-hearted woman who had
called Arthur Shandon one of her "boys."

The girl drew nearer, with no tightening of reins upon Gypsy's headlong
speed. Another glimpse through the cedars showed her that there was
some one with her mother, a man, broad and heavy shouldered. He
turned, hearing the pound of the flying hoofs through the still air as
she came on. It was her father. She could see the massive, calm face,
the white hair and white square beard.

She was barely five hundred yards from the foot of the knoll when she
saw that her father and mother were not alone. The third figure had
been concealed from her until now by the great post standing at the top
of the steps. But now the man sitting there rose to his feet and
turned to look in the direction her parents were looking. A sudden
choking came into the girl's throat, a quick rush of tears into her dry
eyes. She drew her reins tight, bringing her pony down into a trot,
then to a walk. She could not rush on like this, carrying a message of
grief and terror; must she hasten so eagerly to speak the word that was
going to make life so different to this man?

"Oh, how can I tell him?" she was moaning. "The gladdest, gayest,
happiest boy of a man that ever lived! Will he ever be glad again?"

Her mother had waved to her, her father was smiling, proud of her as he
always was when he saw how she rode. And the other man who had leaped
to his feet was running down the steps, coming to meet her, coming to
meet the news she brought.

CHAPTER II

THE SHADOW

The girl drooped her head a little, while Gypsy walked very slowly.
Then she looked up again,