They saw it against the north-eastern horizon.  From the base of the hills on which they stood a broad valley spread out generously.  Marking the valley’s northern boundary some half-dozen miles away, thrown up against the sky like a bulwark, was a long broken ridge like a wall of cliff, an embankment stained the many colours of the south-west; red it looked in streaks and yellow and orange and even lavender and pale elusive green.  It swept in a broad, irregular curve about the further level lands; it was carved and notched along its crest into strange shapes, here thrusting upward in a single needle-like tower, there offering to the clear sky a growth like a monster toadstool, again notched into saw-tooth edges.

‘And here,’ said Howard, his voice eloquent of his pride of ownership, ’my valley lands.  From Last Ridge to the hills across yonder, from those hills as far as you can see to the south, mile after mile of it, it’s mine, by the Lord!  That is,’ he amended with a slow smile under Helen’s amazed eyes, ‘when I get it all paid for!  And there,’ he continued, pointing this time to something white showing through the green of a grove upon a meadow land far off toward the southern rim of the valley, ’there is home.  You’ll know the way; I’m only twelve or fifteen miles from the Ridge, and so, you see, we’re next-door neighbours.’

To Helen, as she gazed whither his finger led, came a strange, unaccustomed thrill.  For the first time she felt the glory, and forgot the discomfort, of the hot sun and the hot land.  There was a man’s home; set apart from the world and yet sufficient unto itself; here was a man’s holding, one man’s, and it was as big and wide as a king’s estate.  She looked swiftly at the tall man at her side; it was his or would be his.  And he need not have told her; what she had read in the timbre of his voice she saw written large in his eyes; they were bright with the joy of possession.

‘Neighbours, folks,’ he was saying.  ’So let’s begin things in neighbourly style.  Come on home with me now; stick over a day or so resting up.  Then I’ll send a wagon and a couple of the boys over to the ridge with you and they’ll lend you a hand at digging in for the length of your stay.  It’s the sensible thing,’ he insisted argumentatively as he saw how Longstreet’s gaze grew eager for the Ridge.  ‘And I’d consider it an honour, a high honour.’

‘You are extremely kind, sir,’ said Longstreet hesitatingly.  ‘But——­’

‘Come on,’ cut in Howard warmly, his hand on the older man’s shoulder.  ’Just as a favour to me, neighbour.  Everything’s plain out our way; nothing fancy.  But I’ve got clean beds to sleep in and the kitchen store-room’s full and——­ Why, man, I’ve even got a bathtub!  Come ahead; be a sport and take a chance.’

Longstreet smiled; Helen watched him questioningly.  Suddenly she realized that she was a trifle curious about Alan Howard; bath and clean beds did tempt her weary body, and besides there would be a certain interest in looking in upon the stranger’s establishment.  She wondered for the first time if there were a young Mrs. Howard awaiting him?