For a moment, the two stared at each other in the fading light, then Douglas released the bridle and Judith galloped away.

He stood very still for a long time, gazing down the dim line of the trail.  How lonely, how very lonely Judith appeared to be!  How lonely, for that matter, were most people, pondering in the solitude of their own minds on all the matters of life that really counted.  And how utterly impossible it seemed to be for him and Judith to cross the threshold of each other’s reticences.  More difficult perhaps for Judith than for him.  That, perhaps, was because she did not love him.  Or perhaps, because she was not capable of feeling sympathy for spiritual hunger.  But he put aside this thought, impatiently.  No one could have lived with Judith and not have learned that below her tempestuous nature must be deeps greater than even she herself had realized.  Why, O why, could he never have more than a glimpse of those deeps!  Evidently something more than love was demanded as a password.

He had been able, quickly enough, at her request to formulate his own demands on life.  What were Judith’s demands?  Were they only for a love that should be unhampered by the ordinary facts of life?  He knew that this could not be so.  Yet, he had grown up with Judith, had asked her to marry him, and had no idea of what her actual mental and spiritual needs might be.  Perhaps they were such that he never could satisfy them.  Perhaps Judith recognized this.  Of course, she recognized it!—­as a bitter memory of her picture of marriage in Lost Chief returned to him.  With a groan he bowed his head against the smooth trunk of an aspen.  How utterly inexplicable women were!  How bitter and how beautiful was this scourging fire, called love!

CHAPTER XII

THE FIRST SERMON

“I ain’t able to think.  That’s why I’m pretty generally happy.”

—­Old Johnny Brown.

By dawn the next morning Douglas was half-way up the trail to the Pass.  He did not know at what hour the preacher would arrive, but he did not propose that the old man should enter Lost Chief without his protection.  When he reached the crest, he unsaddled the Moose and settled himself against a gigantic jade rock beside the trail and prepared to wait patiently.

The sun lifted slowly over the unspeakable glory of the ranges and poured its glory down upon the Pass, then swung westward, leaving a chill shadow beside the rock where Douglas was camping.  It was mid-afternoon when the stage came through from the half-way house.  Old Johnny Brown was driving.

As he pulled up the horses for a rest, he saw Douglas and smiled delightedly.

“Waiting for me, Douglas?”

Douglas shook his head.  “I came up to meet a friend, Johnny.”

The little old man stared at Douglas; then he said fretfully, “I don’t see why Grandma Brown had to go and make me drive the gregus old stage for a week.  I deponed to her that I had to get up there and take care of you.  When that preacher comes, you’ll need me, Doug.  There’s lots of trouble brewing, boy.”