''I haven't anybody just hanging around to do
things like diis for me," he said lighdy as he re-
joined his guests. "Not until I get the whole
thing paid off. What men I've got are jumping
on the job from sunup to dark. I'll turn you

40



In Desert Valley-
loose in the boQse and then look after the stock
myself."

They passed several smaller outbuildings, some
squat and andent-Iooking adobes, others newer
frame buildings, all neady whitewashed. And then
the home itself. Quite as Helen has previsioned,
there was a low wooden fence about the garden;
over the gateway were tangled rose vines disputing
possession with a gnarled grape ; the walk from the
gate was outlined with the protruding ends of white
earthen bottles, so in vogue in the southland a few
years ago; a wide, coolly-dark veranda ran the
length of die building; through three feet thick
walls the doorways invited to further coolness.
Howard stood aside for them to enter. They found
underfoot a bare floor; it had been sprinkled from
a watering-pot earlier in the afternoon. The room
was big and dusky; a few rawhide-bottomed chairs,
a long rough table painted moss-green, some shelves
with books, furnished the apartment. At one end
was a fireplace.
Howard tossed his hat to the table and opened
a door at one end of the room. Before them was
a hallway; a few steps down were two doors, one
on each hand, heavy old doors of thick slabs of
oak, hand-hewn and with rough iron bands across
them, top and bottom, the big nail heads showing.
Howard threw one open, then the other.
