e scarcely caught her meaning, but the peculiar tone of her voice
caused him instantly to rise, and he saw Bess on her knees before an
open pack which he recognized as the one given him by Jane.

"By George!" he ejaculated, guiltily, and then at sight of Bess's face
he laughed outright.

"A woman packed this," she repeated, fixing woeful, tragic eyes on him.

"Well, is that a crime?'

"There--there is a woman, after all!"

"Now Bess--"

"You've lied to me!"

Then and there Venters found it imperative to postpone work for the
present. All her life Bess had been isolated, but she had inherited
certain elements of the eternal feminine.

"But there was a woman and you did lie to me," she kept repeating, after
he had explained.

"What of that? Bess, I'll get angry at you in a moment. Remember you've
been pent up all your life. I venture to say that if you'd been out in
the world you d have had a dozen sweethearts and have told many a lie
before this."

"I wouldn't anything of the kind," declared Bess, indignantly.

"Well--perhaps not lie. But you'd have had the sweethearts--You couldn't
have helped that--being so pretty."

This remark appeared to be a very clever and fortunate one; and the
work of selecting and then of stowing all the packs in the cave went on
without further interruption.

Venters closed up the opening of the cave with a thatch of willows and
aspens, so that not even a bird or a rat could get in to the sacks
of grain. And this work was in order with the precaution habitually
observed by him. He might not be able to get out of Utah, and have to
return to the valley. But he owed it to Bess to make the attempt, and in
case they were compelled to turn back he wanted to find that fine store
of food and grain intact. The outfit of implements and utensils he
packed away in another cave.

"Bess, we have enough to live here all our lives," he said once,
dreamily.

"Shall I go roll Balancing Rock?" she asked, in light speech, but with
deep-blue fire in her eyes.

"No--no."

"Ah, you don't forget the gold and the world," she sighed.

"Child, you forget the beautiful dresses and the travel--and
everything."

"Oh, I want to go. But I want to stay!"

"I feel the same way."

They let the eight calves out of the corral, and kept only two of the
burros Venters had brought from Cottonwoods. These they intended to
ride. Bess freed all her pets--the quail and rabbits and foxes.

The last sunset a