Which was not altogether true. Men-folk or no men-folk, he meant to have her. He meant to have her because he wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. There was something peculiar about this. He had desired things before, but never like this. If what he wished came easily, he took it; if not, he forgot. As long as he had a roof over his head, a plot of land of his own, enough to eat, and a little money, he could always worry along. Mostly he lived each day as it came, content enough in his mountain kingdom. Even when he first began to feel the loneliness of the nights and to look about for a wife, it was with indifferent interest in the woman herself. His interest in Roxie was, perhaps, even at the start, quicker than that he had ever felt for others of her sex, but he had not anticipated any such desire as that which had now taken possession of him. He had wanted her first because she was a woman and he a man. Then he had wanted her because she was good to look upon; dainty and clean-limbed and shy as a fawn. Finally he wanted her because she was Roxie Kester; because she was herself. Just what this meant he did not know, except that now, to-day, he felt she was the one woman who could ever break his loneliness; this new loneliness which she herself had created. It is one thing to be lonely; another to be alone. Without her, he was alone. This did not mean merely that he was by himself. That is a negative condition. It meant an acute consciousness of the absence of another. That is positive. It left him not content to wait, and impelled him to action. Bud was like a child in his impatience over delay. Patience is not an inborn virtue; it is the product of high development. It involves self-control which is the ultimate goal of civilization. Like a child, too, Bud felt a desire to be equivalent to a proprietary right. Wanting Roxie, he was entitled to her. And so, sitting alone before his fire rolling and smoking innumerable cigarettes, Bud planned how he might get her. To him it seemed only a matter of gaining possession. The future would look after the rest. He was sure of himself there. She was stubborn and as full of fight as a mountain wildcat, but she would tame. He even smiled a little in anticipation of that struggle. She would tame. He had broken horses and he had broken men. His thin lips hardened. He could also break a woman. Break her, yes, but after that, he could break any one else who tried to harm her. Once she was his own, then valley folk or mountain folk had better have a care how they trespassed. He would relish the opportunity to prove himself. He would relish it at this moment. God, if only he could get out and shoot for her! If only it were as simple as that!