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Thane reached the side of the wagon before the veiled young woman could attempt to jump. She freed her skirts, stepped on the brake bar, and stooping, with his support made a successful spring to the ground. Mr. Withers climbed out more cautiously, keeping his hand on Thane’s arm for a few steps through the heavy sand. Thane left his fellow pilgrims to themselves apart, and returned to help the teamster take out the horses.

“It looks queer to me,” Mr. Kinney remarked, “that folks should want to come so far on purpose to harrer up their feelin’s all over again. It ain’t as if the young man was buried here, nor as if they was goin’ to mark the spot with one of them Catholic crosses like you see down in Mexico, where blood’s been spilt by the roadside. But just to set here and think about it, and chaw on a mis’able thing that happened two years and more ago! Lord! I wouldn’t want to, and I ain’t his father nor yet his girl. Would you?”

“Hardly,” said Thane. “Still, if you felt about it as Mr. Withers does, you’d put yourself in the place of the dead, not the living; and he has a reason for coming, besides. I haven’t spoken of it, because I doubt if the thing is feasible. He wants to see whether the water, of the spring can be brought into the hollow here–piped, to feed a permanent drinking trough and fountain. Good for evil, you see–the soft answer.”

“Well, that’s business! That gits down where a man lives. His cattle kin come in on that, too. There’s more in that, to my mind, than in a bare wooden cross. Pity there won’t be more teamin’ on this road. Now the stage has hauled off, I don’t expect as many as three outfits a year will water at that fountain, excusin’ the sheep, and they’ll walk over it and into it, and gorm up the whole place.”

“Well, the idea has been a great comfort to Mr. Withers, but it’s not likely anything more will ever come of it. From all we hear, the spring would have to run up hill to reach this hollow; but you won’t speak of it, will you, till we know?”

“Gosh, no! But water might be struck higher up the gulch–might sink a trench and cut off the spring.”

“That would depend on the source,” said Thane, “and on how much the old gentleman is willing to stand; the fountain alone, by the time you haul the stone here, will foot up pretty well into the thousands. But we’ll see.”

“Hadn’t you better stay round here with them till I git back?” Kinney suggested; for Thane had taken the empty canteens from the wagon, and was preparing to go with him to the spring. “You kin do your prospectin’ later.”

“They would rather be by themselves, I think,” said Thane. But seeing Mr. Withers coming towards him, as if to speak, he turned back to meet him.

“You are going now to look for the spring, are you not?” the old gentleman asked, in his courteous, dependent manner.

“Yes, Mr. Withers. Is there anything I can do for you first?”

“Nothing, I thank you.” The old gentleman looked at him half expectantly, but Thane was not equal, in words, to the occasion. “This is the place, Mr. Thane,” he cadenced, in his measured, clerical tones. “This is the spot that last saw my dear boy alive,–that witnessed his agony and death.” He extended a white, thin, and now shaking hand, which Thane grasped, uncovering his head. Mr. Withers raised his left hand; his pale eyes blinked in the sunlight; they were dim with tears.

“In memory of John Withers,” he pronounced, “foully robbed of life in this lonely spot, we three are gathered here,–his friend, his father, and his bride that should have been.” Thane’s eyes were on the ground, but he silently renewed his grasp of the old man’s hand. “May God be our Guide as we go hence to finish our separate journeys! May He help us to forgive as we hope to be forgiven! May He teach us submission! But, O Lord! Thou knowest it is hard.”