this noble woman, Mrs. Peyton, so kind, so gentle, would never object
to his loving Susy and marrying her. And they would all live happily
together; and Mrs. Peyton would never be separated from them, but always
beaming tenderly upon them as she did just now in the garden. Yes, he
would have a serious understanding with Susy, and that would excuse the
clandestine meeting to-day.
His rapid pace, meantime, had brought him to the imperceptible incline
of the terrace, and he was astonished, in turning in the saddle, to find
that the casa, corral, and outbuildings had completely vanished, and
that behind him rolled only the long sea of grain, which seemed to have
swallowed them in its yellowing depths. Before him lay the wooded ravine
through which the stagecoach passed, which was also the entrance to
the rancho, and there, too, probably, was the turning of which Susy had
spoken. But it was still early for the rendezvous; indeed, he was in
no hurry to meet her in his present discontented state, and he made a
listless circuit of the field, in the hope of discovering the phenomena
that had caused the rancho's mysterious disappearance. When he had
found that it was the effect of the different levels, his attention was
arrested by a multitude of moving objects in a still more distant
field, which proved to be a band of wild horses. In and out among
them, circling aimlessly, as it seemed to him, appeared two horsemen
apparently performing some mystic evolution. To add to their singular
performance, from time to time one of the flying herd, driven by the
horsemen far beyond the circle of its companions, dropped suddenly and
unaccountably in full career. The field closed over it as if it had been
swallowed up. In a few moments it appeared again, trotting peacefully
behind its former pursuer. It was some time before Clarence grasped the
meaning of this strange spectacle. Although the clear, dry atmosphere
sharply accented the silhouette-like outlines of the men and horses, so
great was the distance that the slender forty-foot lasso, which in
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