brush of the plain.

Beth watched him with many misgivings at her heart.

"Where--where are you going?" she called.

"To bed," he called in response. "Want room to kick around, if I get
restless."

She understood--but it was hard to bear, to be left so alone as this,
in such a place. He went needlessly far, she was sure.

Grateful to him, but alarmed, made weaker again by having thus to make
her couch so far from any protection, she continued to stand there,
watching him depart. He stooped at last, and his pony halted near him,
like a faithful being who must needs keep him always in sight. Even
the pony would have been some company for Beth, but when Van stretched
himself down upon the earth, with the saddle for a pillow, she felt
horribly alone.

There was nothing to do but to make the best of what the fates allowed.
She curled herself down on the chilly sand with the blanket tucked
fairly well around her. But she did not sleep. She was far too tired
and alarmed.

Half an hour later three coyotes began a fearsome serenade. Beth sat
up abruptly, as terrified as if she had been but a child. She endured
it for nearly five minutes, hearing it come closer all the while. Then
she could bear it no more. She rose to her feet, caught up her
blanket, and almost ran towards the pony. More softly then she
approached the place where Van lay full length upon the ground. She
beheld him in the moonlight, apparently sound asleep.

As closely as she dared she crept, and once more made her bed upon the
sand. There, in a child-like sense of security, with her fearless
protector near, she listened in a hazy way to the prowling beasts, now
cruising away to the south, and so profoundly slept.

Van had heard her come. Into his heart snuggled such a warmth and holy
joy as few men are given to feel. He, too, went to sleep, thinking of
his nugget on her breast.

CHAPTER XXVII

TALL STORIES

Daylight had barely broadened into morning when Van was astir from his
bed. The air was chill and wonderfully clean. Above the eastern run
of hills the sun was ready to appear.

Beth still lay deep in slumber. She had curled up like a child in her
meager covering. Van watched her from his distance. A little shiver
passed through her form, from time to time. Her hat was still in
place, but how girlish, how sweet, how helpless was her face--the
little he could see! How he wished he might permit her to sleep it out
a