20 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



telling her that she and Charles Edward had been 

 made for each other. The furniture was shrill, 

 and therefore not indispensable, but we bought a 

 convenient camp bedstead for four and a half 

 dollars. We left at dusk, but by the time we 

 reached the Touchwood trail it was ominously dark, 

 only for a lurid glow in the distance which I knew 

 meant a bad storm. 



The Creegans begged me to remain at the 

 Fort overnight, but I thought it possible to get 

 home. Charles Edward, fresh from his long rest, 

 climbed Troy Hill gaily by the last gleam of light. 

 As we emerged into the open the first growl of the 

 oncoming storm echoed among the hills, but I 

 hoped to reach home before it broke and blazed as 

 it only can on the prairie. Spring rains and snow- 

 drift have caused fainter repetitions of the main 

 trail on its either side. After wandering off on to 

 these many times in the black darkness, and literally 

 feeling my way back with my fingers, I got into a 

 place which was completely baffling. By the mock- 

 ing flash of lightning I could see the country for 

 twenty miles round, but I could not define my exact 

 whereabouts on the trail, and I hadn't learned to 

 trust entirely to the instinct of a horse. 



Over the space of a mile I wandered up and down 

 leading Charles Edward, and shouting in the hope 

 that I was near the farm, and that Lai or Hilaria 

 might hear me ; but during our summer on his 

 homestead we had grown serenely indifferent to 

 delay, and had made it a rule to refuse to worry. 

 Suddenly my shout seemed answered on a weird 

 strange dominating note of profound melancholy. 

 First one, then many other voices echoed to its 



