d on my
barren hills. I seem to have come to another world. 'Many Waters' is
such a ranch as I never dreamed of. The orchards, the fruit, the
gardens--and everywhere running water! It all smells so fresh and sweet.
And then the green and red and purple against that background of blazing
gold!... 'Many Waters' is verdant and fruitful. The Bend is desert."

"Now that you've been here, do you like it better than your barren
hills?" asked Lenore.

Kurt hesitated. "I don't know," he answered, slowly. "But maybe that
desert I've lived in accounts for much I lack."

"Would you like to stay at 'Many Waters'--if you weren't going to war?"

"I might prefer 'Many Waters' to any place on earth. It's a paradise.
But I would not chose to stay here."

"Why? When you return--you know--my father will need you here. And if
anything should happen to him I will have to run the ranch. Then _I_
would need you."

Dorn stopped in his tracks and gazed at her as if there were slight
misgivings in his mind.

"Lenore, if you owned this ranch would you want me--_me_ for your
manager?" he asked, bluntly.

"Yes," she replied.

"You would? Knowing I was in love with you?"

"Well, I had forgotten that," she replied, with a little laugh. "It
would be rather embarrassing--and funny, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would," he said, grimly, and walked on again. He made a gesture
of keen discomfiture. "I knew you hadn't taken me seriously."

"I believed you, but I could not take you _very_ seriously," she
murmured.

"Why not?" he demanded, as if stung, and his eyes flashed on her.

"Because your declaration was not accompanied by the
usual--question--that a girl naturally expects under such
circumstances."

"Good Heaven! You say that?... Lenore Anderson, you think me insincere
because I did not ask you to marry me," he asserted, with bitter pathos.

"No. I merely said you were not--_very_ serious," she replied. It was
fascination to torment him this way, yet it hurt her, too. She was
playing on the verge of a precipice, not afraid of a misstep, but
glorying in the prospect of a leap into the abyss. Something deep and
strange in her bade her make him show her how much he loved her. If she
drove him to desperation she would reward him.

"I am going to war," he began, passionately, "to fight for you and your
sisters.... I am ruined.... The only noble and holy feeling left to
me--that I can have with me in the dark hours--is my love for you. If
y