"Florence Mehitabel Genevieve Jane, She came home in the wind an' the rain, She came home in the rain an' the snow; 'Ain't a-goin' to leave my home any mo'!'" "Jeff," said the mystified Ballinger, spurring up beside him, "what has the gray-haired Register done? Has murder stained his hands with gore?" Jeff raised his bridle hand. "Gee! Leo, I don't know! I just taken a chance!" CHAPTER I THE PITCHER THAT WENT TO THE WELL "When I bend my head low and listen at the ground, I can hear vague voices that I used to know, Stirring in dim places, faint and restless sound; I remember how it was when the grass began to grow." --_Song of The Wandering Dust_, ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH. The pines thinned as she neared Rainbow Rim, the turfy glades grew wider; she had glimpses of open country beyond--until, at last, crossing a little spit of high ground, she came to the fairest spot in all her voyage of exploration and discovery. She sank down on a fallen log with a little sigh of delight. The steep bank of a little canyon broke away at her feet--a canyon which here marked the frontier of the pines, its farther side overgrown with mahogany bush and chaparral--a canyon that fell in long, sinuous curves from the silent mystery of forest on Rainbow Crest behind her, to widen just below into a rolling land, parked with green-black powderpuffs of juniper and cedar; and so passed on to mystery again, twisting away through the folds of the low and bare gray hills to the westward, ere the last stupendous plunge over the Rim to the low desert, a mile toward the level of the waiting sea. Facing the explorer, across the little canyon, a clear spring bubbled from the hillside and fell with pleasant murmur and tinkle to a pool below, fringed with lush emerald--a spring massed about with wild grapevine, shining reeds of arrow-weed; a tangle of grateful greenery, jostling eagerly for the life-giving water. Draped in clinging vines, slim acacias struggled up through the jungle; the exquisite fragrance of their purple bells gave a final charm to the fairy chasm.