"When a man like that dreams, he dreams hard--and deep," the doctor continued. "But how about yourself?"
She laughed, and placed a restraining hand upon his arm.
"You're going too fast," she panted. "I'll be winded before we get to the river."
"I guess I was trying to overtake my hopes," said he. "I'm sorry; we'll go slower--in all things--the rest of the way."
She looked at him quickly, a little curiously, but there was no explanation in his eyes, fixed on the graying landscape beyond the river.
"It looks like ashes," said he softly, with a motion of the hand toward the naked hills. "There is no life in it; there is nothing of the dead. It is a cenotaph of dreams. But how about your claim?"
"It's a little farther up than I had expected," she admitted, but with a cheerful show of courage which she did not altogether feel.
"Yes; it puts you out of the chance of drawing any agricultural land, throws you into the grazing and mineral," said he.
"Unless there are a great many lapses," she suggested.
"There will be hundreds, in my opinion," he declared. "But in case there are not enough to bring you down to the claim worth having--one upon which you could plant trees and roses and such things?"
"I'll stick to it anyhow," said she determinedly.
"Home," she answered with a caressing touch upon the word. "I came here to make it; I sha'n't go away without it. I don't know just how long it will take me, nor how hard it will be, but I'm going to collect interest on my hopes from this country before I turn my back."
"Perhaps I believe more in myself," she answered thoughtfully. "Have you determined what you are going to do?"
He laughed--a short, harsh expression of ironical bitterness.
"I've gone through the mill today of heat and cold," said he. "First, I was going to sell my relinquishment for ten thousand dollars as soon as the law would allow, but by noon I had come down to five hundred. After that I took up the notion of sheep stronger than Milo, from Iowa, ever thought of it. It took just one more extra to put that fire out, and now the ashes of it aren't even warm. Just what my next phantasy will be I can't say."
"But you're going to stay here, aren't you?"
"I've thought of that, too. I've thought of making another try at it in a professional way. But this is a big, empty country. Few people live in it and fewer die. I don't know."