The lithe, slender figure of the girl ahead seemed one with the horse it rode.  He tried to think what this ride would be if another woman he knew were riding on that horse ahead, but there was very small satisfaction in that.  In the first place, it was highly improbable, and the young man was of an intensely practical turn of mind.  It was impossible to imagine the haughty beauty in a brown calico riding a high-spirited horse of the wilds.  There was but one parallel.  If she had been there, she would, in her present state of mind, likely be riding imperiously and indifferently ahead instead of by his side where he wanted her.  Besides, he came out to the plains to forget her.  Why think of her?

The sky was exceedingly bright and wide.  Why had he never noticed this wideness in skies at home?  There was another flock of birds.  What if he should try to shoot one?  Idle talk.  He would probably hit anything but the birds.  Why had that girl shot that bird, anyway?  Was it entirely because she might need it for food?  She had picked it up significantly with the other things, and fastened it to her saddle-bow without a word.  He was too ignorant to know whether it was an edible bird or not, or she was merely carrying it to remind him of her skill.

And what sort of a girl was she?  Perhaps she was escaping from justice.  She ran from him yesterday, and apparently stopped only when utterly exhausted.  She seemed startled and anxious when the antelopes came into sight.  There was no knowing whether her company meant safety, after all.  Yet his interest was so thoroughly aroused in her that he was willing to risk it.

Of course he might go more slowly and gradually, let her get ahead, and he slip out of sight.  It was not likely he had wandered so many miles away from human habitation but that he would reach one sometime; and, now that he was re-enforced by food, perhaps it would be the part of wisdom to part with this strange maiden.  As he thought, he unconsciously slackened his horse’s pace.  The girl was a rod or more ahead, and just vanishing behind a clump of sage-brush.  She vanished, and he stopped for an instant, and looked about him on the desolation; and a great loneliness settled upon him like a frenzy.  He was glad to see the girl riding back toward him with a smile of good fellowship on her face.

“What’s the matter?” she called.  “Come on!  There’s water in the valley.”

The sound of water was good; and life seemed suddenly good for no reason whatever but that the morning was bright, and the sky was wide, and there was water in the valley.  He rode forward, keeping close beside her now, and in a moment there gleamed below in the hot sunshine the shining of a sparkling stream.

“You seem to be running away from some one,” he explained.  “I thought you wanted to get rid of me, and I would give you a chance.”

She looked at him surprised.

“I am running away,” she said, “but not from you.”