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We've had to hold up our hands to ward them off lately. Your Vigilantes here have opened up since we got them together and showed some of them your letter. You were wise to tell us to go ahead if you were not here what did you look for?" "Just about what I got," said Kenset smiling, "and I wanted things to be pushed through anyway." "Well, they're pushing," said Burn-Harris.
Billy set his teeth to keep from crushing her fingers, and together they rode slowly up along the sounding slopes to the beautiful security and comfort of Last's Holding. Kenset of the foothills was very busy. Between study of his maps and the endless riding of their claimed areas he was out from dawn till dark.
Once again Tharon met Kenset in the days that followed. Riding by the Silver Hollow she stopped one breathless afternoon, drank of the snow-cold waters, shared them with El Rey, dropped the rein over the stallion's head and flung herself full length on the earth beside the spring.
Then it seemed to come forward out of the mass of fleeting memories Kenset that day at Baston's steps shapely, trim, halted Kenset laughing over the little meal beside the table where the books lay Kenset grasping her shoulder when she whirled to mount El Rey and challenge the Stronghold single-handed to come forward like a calming, steadying thing and turn the pain to purpose.
Then the Vigilantes were gone with jangle of spur and bit-chain, and he was the last to go, standing by Captain in the dim starlight. Tharon stood beside him, and for some unaccountable reason the grim purpose of their acquaintance seemed to drift away, to leave them together, alone under the stars, a man and a maid. Kenset stood for a long moment and looked at the faint outline of her face.
She patted the blue gun that lay half in her lap, its worn scabbard black against her brown skirt. Kenset sobered at once. As ever when he let his mind dwell on that dark shadow which sat so lightly on this girl, he had no feeling for mirth. A very real chill went down his spine and he looked intently into her eyes. "How?" he asked, "what did you do?" But Tharon shook her head.
The sloping stretches began to lift, dotted by the oaks and digger-pines for whose sake Kenset had come to Lost Valley. They shot through them, up along the sharply lifting skirts of the hills, in between the guarding pines that formed the gateway to the little glade where the singing stream went down and the cabin stood at the head. Tharon's throat was tight, as if a hand pressed hard upon it.
In autumn the scarlet maples set between the elms are no bad substitute for stained-glass windows. There were no fine pictures in the town, but every turn of the river disclosed a landscape equal to a Claude or a Kenset. It is rare good fortune to live by a river of clear, pure water which serves equally well for boating and swimming or skating. There are very few such rivers.
Always he saw the ashen whiteness of her cheeks beneath her blowing hair. Always he frowned at the memory and always he felt a thrill go down his nerves. What was she, anyway, this wild, sweet creature of the wilderness who held herself aloof from his friendship, and said that she was "sworn?" Kenset, sane, quiet, peace loving, shook himself mentally and tried not to think of her.
"I'm goin' to th' Cañon Country, Billy," she said simply, "to find th' Cup o' God an' Kenset." Then she straightened in her saddle and gave El Rey the rein. It was two of the clock by the starry heavens when these two riders entered the blind opening in the Rockface and disappeared. El Rey, the mighty, tossed his great head and whistled, stamped his hoofs in the dead sift of the silencing floor.
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