By a strange magic, the coming of a girl had transformed the world. He had seen the strategic value of these hills and valleys often before. He had not dreamed of their beauty. The mists that hung over the ragged lines of the western horizon were no longer fogs that might conceal an army. They were the folds of a huge veil which Nature was softly drawing over the face of a beautiful bride. Why had he not seen this before?
The awful silence of the plains from which he had fled to books had suddenly become God's great whispering gallery. He listened with joyous awe and reverence.
The stars had been his guides by night to find the trail. He had merely lifted his eyes to make the reckoning. He had never seen before the crystal flash from their jeweled depths.
He looked into the eyes of the graceful young rider by his side and longed to tell her of this miracle wrought in his soul. But he hesitated. She was too dignified and self-possessed. It would be silly when put into words.
But the world to-day was too beautiful to hurry through it. He just couldn't.
"Let's stop on this hill and watch the sunset, Miss Sarah?" he suggested.
With a light laugh, she sprang from the saddle. They touched the ground at the same moment.
He looked at her with undisguised admiration.
"A soldier's daughter must be--it's part of her life."
He tied their horses to the low hanging limbs of a cluster of scrub trees, and found a seat on the bowlders which the Indians had set for a landmark on the lonely hilltop.
Westward the plains stretched, a silent ocean of green, luscious grass.
"What's that dark spot in the valley?" the girl eagerly asked.
A smile played about the corners of her fine mouth. But she ignored the hint.
"Tell me," she cried; "you studied the sciences at West Point, what does it mean?"
"Look closely. Any fifteen-year-old boy of the plains could explain it."
"No," he answered soberly, "our eyes just refuse to see things at which we are looking until the voice within reveals. The eyes of a hunter could make no mistake about such a spot--particularly if it moved."
"That big black field! It must be ten acres--"
The man laughed at her ignorance with a sudden longing in his heart to help and protect her.