"Come on, Win," called the Texan, "I'll show you where God dumped the
tailin's when He finished buildin' the world."
Together the three scaled the steep rock-wall. Alice, scorning
assistance, was the first to reach the top, and once more the splendour
of the magnificent waste held her speechless.
For some moments they gazed in silence. Before them, bathed in a pale
amethyst haze that thickened to purple at the far-off edge of the
world, lay the bad lands resplendent under the hot glare of the sun in
vivid red and black and pink colouring of the lava rock. Everywhere
the eye met the flash and shimmer of mica fragments that sparkled like
the facets of a million diamonds, while to the northward the Bear Paws
reared cool and green, with the grass of the higher levels reaching
almost to the timber line.
"Isn't it wonderful?" breathed the girl. "Why do people stay cooped up
in the cities, when out here there is--this?" Endicott's eyes met
hers, and in their depths she perceived a newly awakened fire. She was
conscious of a strange glow at her heart--a mighty gladness welled up
within her, permeating her whole being. "He has awakened," her brain
repeated over and over again, "he has----"
The voice of the Texan fell upon her ears softly as from a distance,
and she turned her eyes to the boyish faced cow-puncher who viewed life
lightly and who, she had learned, was the thorough master of his
wilderness, and very much a man.
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