Finally she drew back from the brink. She looked about at the landscape, but there was not a human being to be seen. She slowly mounted her horse again.
Something besides a terrible disaster had happened here at the brink of the Overhang. Something had happened to Nell Blossom so great, so soul-racking, that she would never be altogether the same girl again. It is a dreadful thing for one so young to find its love-idol shattered.
After a little Nell started her mount, but she did not ride back toward Canyon Pass.
CHAPTER II—DISCONTENT AT DITSON CORNERS
The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt read twice these closing words of the long letter.
... and so, my dear Willie, to use your own way of expressing it, I am steering straight for the devil—and enjoying the trip immensely.
Wishing you were with me, Willie, I am, even after your rather bitter castigation,
Sincerely your friend,
Joe Hurley.
He laid the missive on his desk with a full-bosomed sigh. Nor was that sigh wholly because of the reprobate Joe. Joe’s flowers of speech did not much ruffle the parson’s spirit.