the storm catch you?" Then without waiting for an answer she went on.
"We kept the pump going off and on all day. In fact just as steadily as
the Lemon would let us, which was not very steadily, you can be sure.
But I'm so afraid that the second field is gone. The sand was not so bad
this time but the heat was frightful. I don't see how anything green
could stand up against those heat blasts. The thermometer here in the
adobe was 118 deg. at five o'clock this afternoon."

Charley pulled off her hat and sank into a chair. "Well," she sighed,
"why worry! Seems to me I've had all the troubles known to women and I'm
not going to let the mere loss of the family fortune ruin an otherwise
perfect day."

Elsa looked at the two sharply. But Charley went on serenely. "I've been
drowned in sand. I've been bullied and baked and burned, I've been----"

"Good gracious, Els, feed her! She's delirious with hunger!" said Roger.

"Well, of course," exclaimed Elsa, "if the owner of that magnificent
alfalfa crop----"

She was interrupted by a cheerful call from Gustav who was in the
corral.

"Hello, Dick! Hello! How vas the leg?"

Elsa set the coffee pot hastily on the table. The smile left Charley's
face as Dick came slowly over the porch and paused just within the door.

"Well," he said huskily, "the bad egg is back."

"How's the leg?" asked Roger, stiffly.

"All right except for a little lameness. I'll sit down though, if you
don't mind."

Dick sank wearily into a chair and there was a moment's silence. Roger
could not have believed it possible for a human being to have changed as
had Dick in less than a month. His ruddy brown hair was sprinkled
with gray. He was thin, and his usually round face was sunken of cheek
with heavy lines showing around his eyes and at the corners of the
mouth.

"Supper's just ready," said Elsa. "You must be hungry, Dick." Dick
pulled himself slowly out of his chair.

"Charley," he said, "and all the rest of you, I've just a few things I
want to tell you before I try to pick up the old threads. Nothing you
folks can say or do to show how you despise me can hurt me. I'm too low
in my own opinion--At first, that afternoon Roger brought Felicia home,
I made up my mind to kill myself. The only thing that kept me from it
was realizing that Charley couldn't stand much more without losing her
mind."

He paused to look at Charley, but she only gazed at him silently in
return and he went on.

"When