Pagina 412 di 439

She got up, and whispered it in his ear. His jaw dropped, and he

stared at her in amazement.

CHAPTER XVI -- THE WOLF BITES

Steve came drowsily to consciousness from confused dreams of a

cattle stampede and the click of rifles in the hands of enemies

who had the drop on him. The rare, untempered sunshine of the

Rockies poured into his window from a world outside, wonderful as

the early morning of creation. The hillside opposite was bathed

miraculously in a flood of light, in which grasshoppers fiddled

triumphantly their joy in life. The sources of his dreams

discovered themselves in the bawl of thirsty cattle and the

regular clicking of a windmill.

A glance at his watch told him that it was six o'clock.

"Time to get up, Steve," he told himself, and forthwith did.