e able to love you
enough to stand it. I want you most of all, but shall want other
things, too."

He smiled indulgently.

"A few years perhaps," he replied. "Till I'm solid on my feet--till I
get going well--we're both young--and then----" He dismissed the
matter with a wave of the hand.

But that evening, when Lee and Dave had gone, when Imogene was asleep,
when the soft darkness was thickening over the mesa, Ruth walked forth
to the edge of the sagebrush.

"I wonder," she murmured, leaving her thought unfinished.

The hush of the mountains, the silence of the plain, the vastness, the
emptiness, the seeming purposelessness of it all, irritated and
oppressed her spirit. And she so yearned to be where the world was
alive and throbbing!

"I wonder if I really love him enough, or if I made a little fool of
myself this afternoon?" she muttered to herself. "I wonder!"

CHAPTER X

Charlie Menocal's object in calling upon the young ladies at Sarita
Creek was merely diversion. He was fond of girls, especially lively
ones, and knew a good many here and there within reach of his motor
car, including a number of pretty Mexican maidens of humble parentage.
But his serious attentions centred about Louise Graham of whom in
secret he was very jealous. Whenever he could find an excuse, and
frequently when not, he went to the Graham ranch on Diamond Creek,
five miles south of the girls' claims, where his figure was as
familiar (and of about as much interest) as the magpies in the
pasture. He fully meant to marry Louise, whose beauty and gracious
manner even to the smallest bare-legged Mexican boy on the ranch
captivated him and stirred in his breast a maddening desire for
possession, so that he might cut off the rest of the world from her
sweetness, so that it might alone feed his passion. Yes, he meant to
have Louise.

When he was with her his black eyes would shine and a ruddy tinge
appear in his dusky cheeks that were as soft and smooth as a Mexican
girl's, and he would restlessly finger a point of his little, silky,
black moustache and feel unutterable agitations proceeding in his
heart. Louise Graham did not allow him to declare his adoration, which
he would have done every moment they were together; when he tried,
she walked away. But Charlie counted on his good looks and his
father's wealth to win her in the end. One fear alone lurked in his
heart, that some young American might come along who would win her