231



CHAPTER XX
TWO FRIENDS AND A GIRL

HOWARD and Carr rode down into the dark-
ening valley side by side. The silence of the
coming dusk was no deeper than that silence which
had crept about them while the three stood upon
the diff*s edge. Longstreet*s laugh had whipped
up the color into Helen's cheeks and had lighted a
battle fire in her eyes. She had whisked away from
them and gone straight back to the cabin, meaning
to save her father from his own artlessness and
from the snare of a designing widow. She had re-
membered to call out a breathless ^* Good-night **
without turning her head. They had taken their
dismissal together, understanding Helen's tortured
mood. Each man grave and taciturn, like two auto-
matons they buckled on their spurs, mounted and
reined toward the trail.
Then Howard had said merely : ** Ccrnie down to
the ranch house, John. I want to talk with you.*'
And Carr had nodded and acquiesced. Thereafter
they were silent again for a long time.
The coming of ni^t is a time of vague veilings,
of grotesque transformations, of remoulding and
steeping in new dyes. Matter-of-fact objects, clear-
cut during the day, assume fantastic shapes; a bush
may appear a crouching mountain cat; a rock may
masquerade as a mastodon. This is an hour of un-

232



Two Friends and a Girl

certainties. And doubtings and questionings and
uncertainties were other shadow shapes thronging
the demesnes of two men's souls. Silence and dim
dusk without, dim dusk and silence .within.
Once Howard, the lighter spirited of the two,
sought to laugh the constraint away.
