In the late afternoon the crowd strolled in couples and quartettes and groups up and down the picturesque place.
Thaine had been with Jo from the moment of his coming and Leigh was glad that she had not yielded to his request of the afternoon before. She had become a little separated from the company as she followed a trail of golden sunflowers down the edge of the wide space between the stream and the foot of the headlands towering far beyond it. The sun had disappeared suddenly and the gleam of the blossoms dulled a trifle. Leigh sat down on a slab of shale to study the effect of the shadow.
“Are you still looking for a letter that will bring Prince Quippi back?” Thaine Aydelot asked as he climbed up from the rough stream bed to a seat beside her.
“I’m watching the effect of sunshine and shadow on the sunflowers,” Leigh replied. 282
“It will be all shadow if you wait much longer. The clouds are gathering now and we must start home.”
“Then I must be going, too. It’s a lovely, lazy place here, though. Some time I’m going to the top of those bluffs, away off there.”
“Let’s go up now,” Thaine suggested.
“But it’s too late. I mustn’t keep the crowd waiting,” Leigh insisted. “It’s a stiff climb, too.”
“I can drive up. I know a trail through the brush. Let me drive you up, Leigh. It won’t take long. There’s something worth seeing up there,” Thaine insisted.
“Well, be quick, Thaine. We’ll get into trouble if we are late,” Leigh declared.