He felt her shiver with the sobs she struggled to repress as his hand rested on her hair. His heart went out to her in a surge of tenderness when he thought of all she had staked in that land--her youth and the promise of life--of all she had seen planned in hope, built in expectation, and all that lay buried now on the bleak mesa marked by two white stones. And he caressed her with gentle hand, looking away the while at the spark of light that came and went, came and went, as if through blowing leaves. So it flashed and fell, flashed and fell, like a slow, slow pulse, and died out, as a spark in tinder dies, leaving the far night blank. Vesta sat up, pushed her hair back from her forehead, her white hand lingering there. He touched it, pressed it comfortingly. "But I'll have to go," she said, calm in voice, "to end this trouble and strife." "I've been wondering, since I'm kind of pledged to clean things up here, whether you'd consider a business proposal from me in regard to taking charge of the ranch for you while you're gone, Vesta." She looked up with a quick start of eagerness. "You mean I oughtn't sell the cattle, Duke?" "Yes, I think you ought to clean them out. The bulk of them are in as high condition as they'll ever be, and the market's better right now that it's been in years." "Well, what sort of a proposal were you going to make, Duke?" "Sheep." "Father used to consider turning around to sheep. The country would come to it, he said." "Coming to it more and more every day. The sheep business is the big future thing in here. Inside of five years everybody will be in the sheep business, and that will mean the end of these rustler camps that go under the name of cattle ranches." "I'm willing to consider sheep, Duke. Go ahead with the plan." "There's twice the money in them, and not half the expense. One man can take care of two or three thousand, and you can get sheepherders any day. There can't be any possible objection to them inside your own fence, and you've got range for ten or fifteen thousand. I'd suggest about a thousand to begin with, though." "I'd do it in a minute, Duke--I'll do it whenever you say the word. Then I could leave Ananias and Myrtle here, and I could come back in the summer for a little while, maybe." She spoke with such eagerness, such appeal of loneliness, that he knew it would break her heart ever to go at all. So there on the hilltop they planned and agreed on the change from cattle to sheep, Lambert to have half the increase, according to the custom, with herder's wages for two years. She would have been more generous in the matter of pay, but that was the basis upon which he had made his plans, and he would admit no change.