The girl was pleased. She had drawn him out, and she thought he had in speaking kept a fair balance between too crude a mode of colloquial expression and poetic elaboration. There was, she knew, a vein of poetic conception in him, and the struggle he had hinted at could only be described fittingly in heroic language. It was, in one sense, a pity that those who had the gift of it and cultivated imagination had, for the most part, never been forced into the fight; but that was, perhaps, not a matter of much importance. There were plenty of men, such as her companion, endowed with endurance, who if they seldom gave their thoughts free rein, rejoiced in the struggle; and by them the world's sternest work was done. "After all," she said, "we have the mountains in civilised England." Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to think he had spoken too unrestrainedly. "Yes," he agreed, smiling; "you can walk about them--where you won't disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys." "But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?" "I can't think of any reason. No doubt, most of them have earned the right to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The Government encourages that kind of thing here." "And that's the charm?" "Yes," said Vane. "I suppose it is." "I'd better explain," Carroll broke in. "Men of a certain temperament are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense they once possessed seems to desert them. After that they're never happy, except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch they don't care about it, and set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that so, Mrs. Nairn?" "There are such crazy bodies," agreed the-lady. "I know one or two, but if I had my way with them they should find one mine, or build one saw-mill." "And then," said Carroll, "you would chain them up for good by marrying them." "I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their husbands on. Maybe"--and she smiled in a half-wistful manner--"it's as well to do something worth the remembering when ye are young. There's a long time to sit still in afterwards." Half in banter, and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the master passion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden. Afterwards, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation, until Carroll laid out in the saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel. Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm; and Carroll looked at him ruefully when they came up again.