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fancied that the dwellers on Ghost Mountain would prefer to be left alone for a few days in which to rehabilitate themselves and their household affairs. But he had Stoney start on a new gate, not so much that he believed it a necessity as that it gave him opportunity to express the protective instinct he felt towards Mary Burrows. Nor did he overlook the pleasant reward of her thanks, when she should find the barrier in place. He intended to send it over by Jackson and a gang, leaving it as a surprise. This time he covered the face and edges of the gate and the frame with green hides, well studded, as some protection against fire. Later this might be shielded by thin metal.

His feelings for Mary Burrows had not yet crystallized into self-acknowledgment of love, a resolution to announce that love to her. Thora had given him a close-up view of the port towards which he had been pleasantly drifting ever since he had met the Girl of Ghost Mountain, when, on the meeting with Juanita, she had said, "You love her, you will ride and fight for her." But that had cropped out under stress and so he had taken it. Events moved too swiftly after that for thoughts of love making. He had forged across the desert with fear for her