Suddenly all the men I know seemed to turn into little
paltry dolls, and Harry with his dear blue eyes flashing at me seemed to
be the only reality, except this splendid Western hero; and a great
lump came in my throat, and I could not speak. Then he took my hand and
kissed it. "We're through with all our sad talk, my Lady Elizabeth," he
said, the kindest smile in his faithful eyes, "and now I am going to
show you I can keep my word, and not be a bleating lambkin."
We came down the mountain after that, and he told me just interesting
things about the camp, and the life, and the wonderful quantities of
gold there. And when we got into the restaurant tent where we were to
meet the others for lunch, Tom and the Vicomte and the rest had returned
after a fruitless search for desperadoes, and underneath I am glad they
have got away after all.
The journey back to Hot Creek was too divinely beautiful, in spite of
two broken tyres which delayed us. The view this way is indescribably
grand and vast--the sunset a pale magenta turning into crimson, and the
sky a blue turning to green, the desert grey, and the mountains beyond
deepest violet turning to sapphire and peacock blue. Does not it sound
as if I were romancing, Mamma! But it was really so, and luminous and
clear, so that we could see perhaps a hundred miles, all a vast sea of
sage brush.
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