Thus his mind worked when he grew calmer. He tried to answer in the
affirmative, but already he hated himself sufficiently. No, the night
had done it. Texas cattle stampede on stormy nights. They run blindly
to destruction. The very air was surcharged, electric, and the girl was
untamed, only a step removed from the soil. The possibility that she
could be seriously interested in him, strangely enough, never presented
itself.

Gray laid strong hold of himself, but it is not easy to subdue thought,
and he could feel those strong, smooth, velvet arms encircling him.
Disorder without and chaos within this house! The heavens rumbled like
a mighty drumhead, the lightning made useless the feeble ray in his
hand. It was the place, the hour of impulse. Gray swore savagely at
himself, then he stumbled into his room and dressed himself more fully.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be much change," he said, cheerfully, as
he opened Allie's door awhile later. "The fires don't seem to be
spreading." She was sitting where he had left her, she had not moved.
"Anything new on this side?"

Allie shrugged; slowly she turned, exposing a face tragic and stony. "I
guess you don't think much of me," she said.

"Indeed!" he declared, heartily. "This is enough to frighten anybody. I
don't mind saying it has upset me. But the worst is over." He laid a
reassuring hand upon her shoulder.

Allie moved her body convulsively. "Lemme be!" she cried, sharply. "I
don't mind the lightning. I ain't scared of the fire, either--hell fire
or any other kind. I ain't scared of anything, and yet--I'm a dam'
coward!"

She rose, gathered her loose robe more closely about her, and made
blindly toward the bed. She flung herself upon it and buried her face
in the pillows. "Just a--dam' coward!" she repeated, in a muffled wail.
"My God, I wish the blaze would come!"

CHAPTER XXVII

Buddy Briskow had difficulty in getting out of the valley on his way
for a doctor, for never had the roads been like this. He drove
recklessly; where necessary he disregarded fences and pushed across
pastures that were hub deep; he even burst through occasional thickets
in defiance of axle and tire. It was a mad journey, like the ride in a
death-defying movie serial; only by some miraculous power of cohesion
did the machine hold together and thus enable him to keep it under way
and bring it out to high ground. Since he had not taken time before
leaving to change into dry clothi