ose who lived near the ranch, and was not
long in winning the esteem of the women who were finding the middle
ground, between the simplicity of savage life and the complexities of
civilization, something too much for mastery.

Lowell and Helen galloped in silence for miles along the road they had
followed in the automobile not many days before. At the crest of a high
ridge, Helen turned at right angles, and Lowell followed.

"There's a view over here I had appropriated for myself, but I'm willing
to share it with you, seeing that this is your own particular
reservation and you ought to know about everything it contains," said
Helen.

The ridge dipped and then rose again, higher than before. The plains
fell away on both sides--infinite miles of undulations. Straight ahead
loomed the high blue wall of the mountains. They walked their horses,
and finally stopped them altogether. The chattering of a few prairie
dogs only served to intensify the great, mysterious silence.

"Sometimes the stillness seems to roll in on you here like a tide," said
Helen. "I can positively feel it coming up these great slopes and
blanketing everything. It seems to me that this ridge must have been
used by Indian watchers in years gone by. I can imagine a scout standing
here sending up smoke signals. And those little white puffs of clouds up
there are the signals he sent into the sky."

"I think you belong in this country," Lowell answered smilingly.

"I'm sure I do. You remember when I first saw these plains and hills I
told you the bigness frightened me a little when the sun brought it all
out in detail. Well, it doesn't any more. Just to be unfettered in mind,
and to live and breathe as part of all this vastness, would be ideal."

"That's where you're in danger of going to the other extreme," the agent
replied. "You'll remember that I told you human companionship is as
necessary as bacon and flour and salt in this country. You're more
dependent on the people about you here, even if your nearest neighbor is
five or ten miles away, than you would be in any apartment building in a
big city. You might live and die there, and no one would be the wiser.
Also you might get along tolerably well, while living alone. But you
can't do it out here and keep a normal mental grip on life."

"My, what a lecture!" laughed the girl, though there was no merriment in
her voice. "But it hardly applies to me, for the reason that I always
depend upon my neig