elids. Even exhaustion was attractive in her. It
showed something new, and newly appealing. Weariness gave merely a new
edge to her beauty. What if her eyes, opening slowly now, were to look
upon him not with the gentleness of friendship, but with something
more--the little shade of difference in a girl's wide eyes that admits a
man to her secrets--and traps him in so doing.

Ben Connor drew himself up with a shake of the shoulders. He felt that
he must keep careful guard from now on. What a power she was. What a
power! If she set herself to the task who could deal with her? What man
could keep from her? Then the picture of David jumped into his mind out
of nothingness. And on the heels of that picture the inspiration came
with a sudden uplifting of the heart, surety, intoxicating insight. He
wanted to jump to his feet and shout until the great ravine beneath them
echoed. With an effort he remained quiet. But he was thinking
rapidly--rapidly. He had intended to use her merely to arrange for
shipping Shakra away from Lukin Junction. For he dared not linger about
the town where expert horse thieves might see the mare. But now
something new, something more came to him. The girl was a power? Why not
use her?

What he said was: "Do you know why you close your eyes?"

Still without looking up she answered: "Why?"

"All of these mountains--you see?" She did not see, so he went on to
describe them. "There's that big peak opposite us. Looks a hundred yards
away, but it's two miles. Comes down in big jags and walks up into the
sky--Lord knows how many thousand feet. And behind it the other ranges
stepping off into the horizon with purple in the gorges and mist at the
tops. Fine picture, eh? But hard to look at, Ruth. Mighty hard to look
at. First thing you know you get to squinting to make out whether that's
a cactus on the side of that mountain or a hundred-foot pine tree. Might
be either. Can't tell the distance in this air. Well, you begin to
squint. That's how the people around here get that long-distance look
behind their eyes and the long-distance wrinkles around the corners of
their eyes. All the men have those wrinkles. But the women have them,
too, after a while. You'll get them after a while, Ruth. Wrinkles around
the eyes and wrinkles in the mind to match, eh?"

Her eyes opened at last, slowly, slowly. She smiled at him plaintively.

"Don't I know, Ben? It's a man's country. It isn't made for woman."

"Ah, there