and indescribable on the Sangre de Cristo peaks.

A cowboy, searching for lost mavericks, rode slowly to the top of a
low sand dune, reined up his pony, and sat silent in the midst of this
solemn spectacle. He was not emotional. He was looking for calves, and
"sore" at not finding them, and hungry, and far from the X bar O; and
night was coming on. But he sat still in his saddle, removed his
flopping sombrero, and looked toward the east. Bareheaded, the wind
stinging his cheek and flinging dry sand in his eyes, he gazed and
wondered at the familiar but never negligible mystery of Sangre de
Cristo.

But suddenly he rose in his stirrups, and shaded his eyes with his
hand to make out what it was that had caught his vision in that flood
of red among the dunes. Again it came, a flash of yellow in the red.
It was there, and gone. And then it came and lingered, as if inviting
him, like a jewel in the sand, or rather, like a challenge and a
taunt.

"So you're back, are you?" cried Larkin, of the X bar O. "Well, you
c'n jest stay there. I'm done with you. You ain't no horse at all,
damn you! You're a devil! But I wonder--"

Then Sunnysides was gone. At the same time the light paled on the
distant peaks. The wind blew colder, and swept the color off the
dunes. The flats darkened under the advancing shades of night. And
Larkin, muttering, put spurs to his pony, and galloped away toward
supper and bed.

THE END

POPULAR COPYRIGHT NOVELS

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Abner Daniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will N. Harben
Adventures of Gerard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Conan Doyle
Adventures of a Modest Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. W. Chambers
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Conan Doyle
After House, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Roberts Rinehart
Ailsa Paige . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert W. Chambers
Alternative, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Barr McCutcheon
Alton of Somasco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Harold Bindloss
Amateur Gentleman, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeffery Farnol
Andrew The Glad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Thompson Daviess
Ann Boyd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will N. Harben
Annals of Ann, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kate T. Sharber
Anna the Adventuress