That moment was happy, but it was as nothing to its successor.  Under the table-cover Mescal’s hand found his, and pressed it daringly and gladly.  Her hand lingered in his all the time August Naab spent in carving the turkey—­lingered there even though Snap Naab’s hawk eyes were never far away.  In the warm touch of her hand, in some subtle thing that radiated from her Hare felt a change in the girl he loved.  A few months had wrought in her some indefinable difference, even as they had increased his love to its full volume and depth.  Had his absence brought her to the realization of her woman’s heart?

In the afternoon Hare left the house and spent a little while with Silvermane; then he wandered along the wall to the head of the oasis, and found a seat on the fence.  The next few weeks presented to him a situation that would be difficult to endure.  He would be near Mescal, but only to have the truth forced cruelly home to him every sane moment—­ that she was not for him.  Out on the ranges he had abandoned himself to dreams of her; they had been beautiful; they had made the long hours seem like minutes; but they had forged chains that could not be broken, and now he was hopelessly fettered.

The clatter of hoofs roused him from a reverie which was half sad, half sweet.  Mescal came tearing down the level on Black Bolly.  She pulled in the mustang and halted beside Hare to hold out shyly a red scarf embroidered with Navajo symbols in white and red beads.

“I’ve wanted a chance to give you this,” she said, “a little Christmas present.”

For a few seconds Hare could find no words.

“Did you make it for me, Mescal?” he finally asked.  “How good of you!  I’ll keep it always.”

“Put it on now—­let me tie it—­there!”

“But, child.  Suppose he—­they saw it?”

“I don’t care who sees it.”

She met him with clear, level eyes.  Her curt, crisp speech was full of meaning.  He looked long at her, with a yearning denied for many a day.  Her face was the same, yet wonderfully changed; the same in line and color, but different in soul and spirit.  The old sombre shadow lay deep in the eyes, but to it had been added gleam of will and reflection of thought.  The whole face had been refined and transformed.

“Mescal!  What’s happened?  You’re not the same.  You seem almost happy.  Have you—­has he—­given you up?”

“Don’t you know Mormons better than that?  The thing is the same—­so far as they’re concerned.”

“But Mescal—­are you going to marry him?  For God’s sake, tell me.”

“Never.”  It was a woman’s word, instant, inflexible, desperate.  With a deep breath Hare realized where the girl had changed.

“Still you’re promised, pledged to him!  How’ll you get out of it?”

“I don’t know how.  But I’ll cut out my tongue, and be dumb as my poor peon before I’ll speak the word that’ll make me Snap Naab’s wife.”