Next to claim her was Hoyle, the superintendent."Miss Burch," he said, "in the early days we could run up a log cabin in a jiffy.Axes, horses, strong arms, and a few pegs--that was all we needed.But this house you've planned is different.It's good you've come to take the responsibility."Carley had chosen the site for her home on top of the knoll where Glenn had taken her to show her the magnificent view of mountains and desert.Carley climbed it now with beating heart and mingled emotions.A thousand times already that day, it seemed, she had turned to gaze up at the noble white-clad peaks.They were closer now, apparently looming over her, and she felt a great sense of peace and protection in the thought that they would always be there.But she had not yet seen the desert that had haunted her for a year.When she reached the summit of the knoll and gazed out across the open space it seemed that she must stand spellbound.How green the cedared foreground-how gray and barren the downward slope--how wonderful the painted steppes! The vision that had lived in her memory shrank to nothingness.The reality was immense, more than beautiful, appalling in its isolation, beyond comprehension with its lure and strength to uplift.
But the superintendent drew her attention to the business at hand.
Carley had planned an L-shaped house of one story.Some of her ideas appeared to be impractical, and these she abandoned.The framework was up and half a dozen carpenters were lustily at work with saw and hammer.
"We'd made better progress if this house was in an ordinary place,"explained Hoyle."But you see the wind blows here, so the framework had to be made as solid and strong as possible.In fact, it's bolted to the sills."Both living room and sleeping room were arranged so that the Painted Desert could be seen from one window, and on the other side the whole of the San Francisco Mountains.Both rooms were to have open fireplaces.Carley's idea was for service and durability.She thought of comfort in the severe winters of that high latitude, but elegance and luxury had no more significance in her life.
Hoyle made his suggestions as to changes and adaptations, and, receiving her approval, he went on to show her what had been already accomplished.
Back on higher ground a reservoir of concrete was being constructed near an ever-flowing spring of snow water from the peaks.This water was being piped by gravity to the house, and was a matter of greatest satisfaction to Hoyle, for he claimed that it would never freeze in winter, and would be cold and abundant during the hottest and driest of summers.This assurance solved the most difficult and serious problem of ranch life in the desert.
Next Hoyle led Carley down off the knoll to the wide cedar valley adjacent to the lake.He was enthusiastic over its possibilities.Two small corrals and a large one had been erected, the latter having a low flat barn connected with it.Ground was already being cleared along the lake where alfalfa and hay were to be raised.Carley saw the blue and yellow smoke from burning brush, and the fragrant odor thrilled her.Mexicans were chopping the cleared cedars into firewood for winter use.
The day was spent before she realized it.At sunset the carpenters and mechanics left in two old Ford cars for town.The Mexicans had a camp in the cedars, and the Hoyles had theirs at the spring under the knoll where Carley had camped with Glenn and the Hutters.Carley watched the golden rosy sunset, and as the day ended she breathed deeply as if in unutterable relief.Supper found her with appetite she had long since lost.Twilight brought cold wind, the staccato bark of coyotes, the flicker of camp fires through the cedars.She tried to embrace all her sensations, but they were so rapid and many that she failed.
The cold, clear, silent night brought back the charm of the desert.How flaming white the stars!.The great spire-pointed peaks lifted cold pale-gray outlines up into the deep star-studded sky.Carley walked a little to and fro, loath to go to her tent, though tired.She wanted calm.
But instead of achieving calmness she grew more and more towards a strange state of exultation.
Westward, only a matter of twenty or thirty miles, lay the deep rent in the level desert--Oak Creek Canyon.If Glenn had been there this night would have been perfect, yet almost unendurable.She was again grateful for his absence.What a surprise she had in store for him! And she imagined his face in its change of expression when she met him.If only he never learned of her presence in Arizona until she made it known in person! That she most longed for.Chances were against it, but then her luck had changed.She looked to the eastward where a pale luminosity of afterglow shone in the heavens.Far distant seemed the home of her childhood, the friends she had scorned and forsaken, the city of complaining and striving millions.If only some miracle might illumine the minds of her friends, as she felt that hers was to be illumined here in the solitude.But she well realized that not all problems could be solved by a call out of the West.Any open and lonely land that might have saved Glenn Kilbourne would have sufficed for her.It was the spirit of the thing and not the letter.It was work of any kind and not only that of ranch life.Not only the raising of hogs!
Carley directed stumbling steps toward the light of her tent.Her eyes had not been used to such black shadow along the ground.She had, too, squeamish feminine fears of hydrophobia skunks, and nameless animals or reptiles that were imagined denizens of the darkness.She gained her tent and entered.The Mexican, Gino, as he called himself, had lighted her lamp and fire.Carley was chilled through, and the tent felt so warm and cozy that she could scarcely believe it.She fastened the screen door, laced the flaps across it, except at the top, and then gave herself up to the lulling and comforting heat.
