CONTENTS

BOOK I
THE COUNTRY
CHAPTERPAGE
I The Squatter[ 3]
II The Gracey Boys[ 12]
III The Name of Allen[ 27]
IV O, Mine Enemy![ 44]
V The Summons[ 54]
VI The Old Love[ 65]
VII Uncle Jim[ 85]
VIII Prizes of Accident[ 99]
BOOK II
THE TOWN
I Down in the City[ 109]
II Feminine Logic[ 126]
III One of Eve’s Family[ 140]
IV Danger Signals[ 153]
V The Great God Pan[ 166]
VI Readjustment[ 183]
VII Business and Sentiment[ 192]
VIII New Planets[ 201]
IX The Choice of Maids[ 214]
X The Quickening Current[ 225]
XI Lupé’s Chains are Broken[ 230]
XII A Man and His Price[ 241]
XIII The Breaking Point[ 252]
XIV Bed-Rock[ 265]
BOOK III
THE DESERT
I Nevada[ 281]
II Old Friends with New Faces[ 286]
III Smoldering Embers[ 304]
IV A Woman’s “No”[ 316]
V “Her Feet Go Down to Death”[ 329]
VI The Edge of the Precipice[ 341]
VII The Colonel Comes Back[ 352]
VIII The Aroused Lion[ 368]
IX Home[ 381]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
June[Frontispiece]
She Smiled Faintly at Him[ 40]
“Here it is! Do You Wonder no one Ever
Found it?”		[ 88]
With the Tip of the Long Spear of Grass,
He Touched Her Lightly on the Cheek		[ 176]
Mercedes[ 244]
Rosamund[ 306]

THE PIONEER

BOOK I
THE COUNTRY

THE PIONEER

CHAPTER I
THE SQUATTER

It had been five o’clock in the clear, still freshness of a May morning when the Colonel had started from Sacramento. Now, drawing rein where the shadow of a live-oak lay like a black pool across the road, he looked at his watch—almost five. The sun had nearly wheeled from horizon to horizon.

During the burning noon hour he had rested at Murderer’s Bar. Except for that he had been in the saddle all day, slackening speed where the road passed over the burnt shoulder of the foot-hills, descending into sheltered cañons by cool river-beds, pacing along stretches of deserted highway where his mounted figure was the only living thing in sight.