She looked up into his eyes, shining with boyish enthusiasm: "I don't dare," she whispered. "I don't want to dare. Oh, Win, I—I'm just crazy about it!"
A few moments later she drew away from him and smoothed her hair.
"You must go right this minute and find Tex. And, oh, I hope Bat will be here in time! I just love old Bat!" She ceased speaking and looked questioningly into his eyes which had suddenly become grave.
"I have been looking for Tex, and I couldn't find him anywhere. Then I went to the stable across the street. His horse is gone."
For some moments both were silent. "He never even said good-bye," faltered the girl, and in her voice was a note of real hurt.
"No," answered Endicott, softly, "he should have said good-bye."
Alice rose and put on her hat: "Come on, let's get out of this hateful stuffy little room. Let's walk and enjoy this wonderful air while we can. And besides, we must find some flowers—wild flowers they must be for our wedding, mustn't they, dear? Wild flowers, right from God's own gardens—wild, and free, and uncultivated—untouched by human hands. I saw some lovely ones, blue and white, and some wild-cherry blossoms, too, down beside that little creek that crosses the trail almost at the edge of the town." Together they walked to the creek that burbled over its rocky bed in the shadow of the bull-pine forest from which Timber City derived its name. Deeper and deeper into the pines they went, stopping here and there to gather the tiny white and blue blossoms, or to break the bloom-laden twigs from the low cherry bushes. As they rounded a huge upstanding rock, both paused and involuntarily drew back. There, in the centre of a tiny glade that gave a wide view of the vast sweep of the plains, with their background of distant mountains, stood the Texan, one arm thrown across the neck of his horse, and his cheek resting close against the animal's glossy neck. For a moment they watched as he stood with his eyes fixed on the far horizon.
"Go back a little way," whispered Endicott. "I want to speak with him." The girl obeyed, and he stepped boldly into the open.
"Tex!"
The man whirled. "What you doin' here?" his face flushed red, then, with an effort, he smiled, as his eyes rested upon the blossoms. "Pickin' posies?"