"Young man, I've enjoyed meetin' you, an' have sure profited from same," he said. "Which makes up for your dad! I'll run over here again to see you--around harvest-time. An' I'll be wishin' for that rain." "Thank you. If it does rain I'll be happy to see you," replied Dorn, with a smile. "Well, if it doesn't rain I won't come. I'll put it off another year, an' cuss them other fellers into holdin' off, too." "You're very kind. I don't know how I'd--we'd ever repay you in that case." "Don't mention it. Say, how far did you say it was to Palmer? We'll have lunch there." "It's fifteen miles--that way," answered Dorn. "If it wasn't for--for father I'd like you to stay--and break some of my bread." Dorn was looking at the girl as he spoke. Her steady gaze had been on him ever since she entered the car, and in the shade of her hat and the veil she was adjusting her eyes seemed very dark and sweet and thoughtful. She brightly nodded her thanks as she held the veil aside with both hands. "I wish you luck. Good-by," she said, and closed the veil. Still, Dorn could see her eyes through it, and now they were sweeter, more mysterious, more provocative of haunting thoughts. It flashed over him with dread certainty that he had fallen in love with her. The shock struck him mute. He had no reply for the rancher's hearty farewell. Then the car lurched away and dust rose in a cloud. CHAPTER III With a strange knocking of his heart, high up toward his throat, Kurt Dorn stood stock-still, watching the moving cloud of dust until it disappeared over the hill. No doubt entered his mind. The truth, the fact, was a year old--a long-familiar and dreamy state--but its meaning had not been revealed to him until just a moment past. Everything had changed when she looked out with that sweet, steady gaze through the parted veil and then slowly closed it. She had changed. There was something intangible about her that last moment, baffling, haunting. He leaned against a crooked old gate-post that as a boy he had climbed, and the thought came to him that this spot would all his life be vivid and poignant in his memory. The first sight of a blue-eyed, sunny-haired girl, a year and more before, had struck deep into his unconscious heart; a second sight had made her an unforgettable reality: and a third had been the realization of love.