“Beth, don’t say that!  Little woman, don’t say that!  The future is long; it may yet lead to happiness.  A true love can outlast even the memory of this night.”

She shook her head wearily, sinking back into the saddle.

“Yes,” she said soberly, “love may, and I believe will, outlast all.  It is immortal.  But even love cannot change the deed; nothing ever can, nothing—­no power of God or man.”

He did not attempt to answer, knowing in the depths of his own heart that her words were true.  For an instant she continued gazing at him, as though trustful he might speak, might chance to utter some word of hope that had not come to her.  Then the uplifted head drooped wearily, the searching eyes turning away to stare once again straight ahead.  His very silence was acknowledgment of the truth, the utter hopelessness of the future.  Although living, there lay between them the gulf of death.

Gray, misty, and silent came the dawn, stealing across the wide desolation like some ghostly presence—­the dawn of a day which held for these two nothing except despair.  They greeted its slow coming with dulled, wearied eyes, unwelcoming.  Drearier amid that weird twilight than in the concealing darkness stretched the desolate waste of encircling sand, its hideous loneliness rendered more apparent, its scars of alkali disfiguring the distance, its gaunt cacti looking deformed and merciless.  The horses moved forward beneath the constant urging of the spur, worn from fatigue, their heads drooping, their flanks wet, their dragging hoofs ploughing the sand.  The woman never changed her posture, never seemed to realize the approach of dawn; but Winston roused up, lifting his head to gaze wearily forward.  Beneath the gray, out-spreading curtain of light he saw before them the dingy red of a small section-house, with a huge, rusty water-tank outlined against the sky.  Lower down a little section of vividly green grass seemed fenced about by a narrow stream of running water.  At first glimpse he deemed it a mirage, and rubbed his half-blinded eyes to make sure.  Then he knew they had ridden straight through the night, and that this was Daggett Station.

He helped her down from the saddle without a word, without the exchange of a glance, steadying her gently as she stood trembling, and finally half carried her in his arms across the little platform to the rest of a rude bench.  The horses he turned loose to seek their own pasturage and water, and then came back, uncertain, filled with vague misgiving, to where she sat, staring wide-eyed out into the desolation of sand.  He brought with him a tin cup filled with water, and placed it in her hand.  She drank it down thirstily.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice sounding more natural.

“Is there nothing else, Beth?  Could you eat anything?”

“No, nothing.  I am just tired—­oh, so tired in both body and brain.  Let me sit here in quiet until the train comes.  Will that be long?”